Of Pirates, Doctors and Wanted Vulcans
by Rowan Cookie
Summary: Earth and Vulcan are on the brink of war, tensions between the two planets have never been higher and the entire quadrant is terrified. Everyone that is aside from pirates. But then, one day the famed pirate captain Jim Kirk meets a Vulcan on the run with a mysterious past, who throws a spanner in all of his pirate plans. Spirk Pirate AU
1. Chapter 1

The bridge of the USS Enterprise was unusually calm, everyone was quietly going about their work as they didn't know when they'd get the chance to again. The last few hours had been the first break they'd had in several weeks.

Just like that though, the peace was broken as the doors to the turbolift slid open and James T. Kirk sauntered out, followed by a less enthusiastic Doctor McCoy.

"Sulu, report," Jim said as he sat down in the Captain's chair,

"We've not detected any ships since the one we attacked this morning," Sulu replied.

"Well that's disappointing," Jim said as he swung his legs over the side of his chair,

"Oh, I don't know," Bones chimed in as he headed over to stand next to the Captain's chair, "A bit of peace and quiet never hurt anyone,"

Jim rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well, I'm bored so it's hurting me,"

"I agree with Bones," Uhura said, "with this quadrant of the galaxy preparing for war this might be the last quiet moment we get for a long while,"

Jim sighed and sat up slightly, "Exactly! With so many planets being on the brink of war everyone is moving about, meaning all the more ships for us to ransack," he said, "this is the perfect time to be a pirate,"

"This week has been our most profitable by some margin," Chekov weighed in,

"I know," Bones sighed, "I'm just saying we should be careful, the last thing we need is to be dragged into a war between Vulcan and Earth."

At that moment Sulu's console stated beeping.

"Sir, there is a small ship approaching from the starboard side," Sulu reported causing Jim to grin,

"Arm the phasers," he said almost gleefully, "On my command fire on their thrusters."

The bridge was silent as a small ship drifted onto their view screen. The ship looked like it had seen better days, there didn't seem to be much consistency with the metal on the outside of the ship and there were sections that even looked like they had been welded together by hand.

Jim smirked then took a deep breath, "Fire!" he shouted,

Right on command the Enterprise's phasers fired, precisely hitting the other ships thrusters.

There was an explosion and the ship stopped moving,

"Direct hit," Sulu reported,

"Scan the ship," Jim ordered, "check they have no more means of propulsion,"

"Yes sir," Chekov replied,

"They look pretty stranded to me," Bones remarked,

"You can never be too careful,"

"All their propulsion systems are offline," Chekov announced after a second,

"Excellent," Jim grinned, "Uhura, open a channel to engineering,"

"Aye Captain, channel open,"

"Mr Scott here," came a voice from the communications console,

"Scotty!" Jim called out, "Capture the ship just off our starboard bow in the tractor beam,"

"Aye sir," Scotty replied,

"Once it's onboard come down to the shuttle bay,"

"Aye sir," Scotty said again, and Jim signalled to Uhura to cut the communication. He stood up and grinned at Bones,

"Let's go see what treasures we've brought in this time," he said gleefully.

Bones rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say Captain,"

Jim walked over and clapped Bones on the shoulder, "It'll be fine Bones," he said, "you worry too much,"

"And you don't worry enough,"

"Sure I do," Jim replied before turning to the rest of the bridge,

"Uhura, Sulu, with me, Chekov keep scanning for ships and Bones, you have the bridge,"

Bones groaned but sat down in the Captain's chair while Jim, Uhura and Sulu walked over to the turbolift.

The door shut behind them and Jim and Uhura drew their phasers, while Sulu drew a long, curved sword from his belt.

"Set it to stun," Jim said and Uhura nodded.

The turbolift came to a stop and the three of them stepped out to find Scotty standing there waiting for them.

"The ship is onboard," Scotty informed them.

Jim nodded and walked over to the entrance of the shuttle bay, "Capture anyone on board," he ordered before he pressed his hand onto the locking mechanism next to the door causing it to slide open.

The four of them walked inside to find themselves face to face with the weird silver ship. However, to their shock, the door to the ship was open and there was nobody in sight.

Uhura frowned, "Somethings not right," she said.

However, before anyone could reply an arm shot out from behind the entrance to the ship and fired an old-fashioned phaser. Sulu instantly hit the floor before anyone could react. The phaser was fired again in quick succession, this time hitting Uhura, sending her tumbling down too.

Everyone jumped into action as the phaser was fired for a third time, this time aimed at Scotty.

The engineer jumped out of the way just in time and ran over to check on Sulu and Uhura.

Jim fired his phaser at the visible arm however it withdrew before Jim could hit his mark.

"They're just unconscious," Scotty reported.

Jim nodded but he didn't take his eyes off of the ship,

"Come out with your hands up," he said, trying to sound more confident then he felt.

There was a flash of movement as the person dodged from one side of the door to the other and tried to hit Jim with his phaser.

Jim threw himself to the side then hurried over to the ship and slammed his back against it. Scotty joined him, standing so that the door was in between the two of them.

The shuttle bay was quiet as nobody moved for a few moments, there was just the sound of everyone breathing as they contemplated their next move.

Jim took a deep breath and leaped towards the door. He caught hold of an arm and yanked a tall man with a mop of messy, black curls out of the ship.

Scotty fired at the man however he spun out of the way, dragging Jim with him.

The man then aimed a well-placed kick to Jim's stomach, winding him and giving the man the opportunity to escape Jim's grip. The man drew his phaser again and turned to fire at Scotty, however when he pressed the trigger nothing happened. The man shook the phaser and tried again but still nothing happened.

Scotty's eyes widened as he realised what had happened and he took the opportunity to raise his phaser and fire at the man however the man manged to duck just in time.

By this point Jim had recovered enough to get back into the fight. He launched himself at the man, knocking the two of them to the floor. Jim punched the man in the face causing him to bang his head hard against the floor.

The man gasped in pain then took a deep breath and pulled himself and Jim to their feet. The man then returned Jim's punch causing his nose to start bleeding. He hit Jim hard on the head with his broken phaser.

Jim stumbled backwards as his vision went spotty as he fought a losing battle to stay upright.

The man took a step back and swiftly reached down and pulled a knife, that neither Scotty nor Jim had noticed, out of his boot.

Scotty raised his phaser again as the man turned to face him however before he could pull the trigger the man threw his knife and it buried itself in Scotty's leg. Scotty let out a shout and dropped his phaser. The man marched over to Scotty and placed his hand on Scotty's shoulder causing him to instantly fall unconscious.

Jim groaned and slowly sat up. His vision had cleared however his head was still pounding. He reached out and grabbed his phaser from where it had fallen on the floor.

The man turned from Scotty and started to advance on Jim.

Jim raised his phaser and fired.

The man ducked and the shot went over his head.

Jim fired again.

The man tried to dodge it again however this time he wasn't quick enough, and the phaser grazed his side causing him to tumble to the ground.

Nobody moved for a few seconds then Jim took and deep breath and, using the wall behind him, pulled himself up so he was standing on slightly shaky legs.

He slowly walked over to the communications panel on the wall, "Bones come in," he wheezed,

"Jim‽" cried Bones, "you sound terrible,"

"I need you to get down here, everyone else is unconscious and Scotty's been stabbed,"

"Jesus Jim," Bones huffed, "I'll be right there."

Jim closed the communication and took a few steps towards the man on the floor. His black curls were now fanned out creating a halo around his head, revealing two, pointed ear. So, the man was not a man at all, he was in fact a Vulcan.


	2. Chapter 2

Jim was standing outside of the brig watching his Vulcan prisoner.

The Vulcan was lying across the threadbare cot that sat at the side of the room. His ears were still poking out from his black curls, they really were the only thing that betrayed the Vulcan's species. He was dressed in, not only human clothing, but scruffy human clothing. No Vulcan Jim had ever seen had looked anything less than regal, yet this Vulcan was wearing filthy fingerless gloves and an equally filthy stripped scarf.

The rest of his clothes were slightly cleaner but not by much. He wore several layers with a leather jacket and a jumper that was starting to unravel around the bottom. The collar of a checked shirt was sticking out of the top of the jumper and a purple t-shirt was just visible at the bottom. All of these looked well worn, there was even a hole starting to form on the elbow of the jumper. He was also wearing tight black trousers, that seemed to make his legs go on for miles when combined with the leather boots he's pulled a knife out of earlier. As much as Jim loathed to admit it the rugged look suited the Vulcan. He might even describe him as cute if he hadn't tried to kill most of his crew.

Before he'd put him in the brig Jim had searched the Vulcan for weapons. He'd found several more knives, along with another dead phaser, and even then, Jim still wasn't convinced he'd managed to get all the weapons the Vulcan had hidden on his person.

Suddenly a beeping noise from the communication panel on the wall dragged Jim away from his thoughts,

"Chekov to Kirk," came a voice.

Jim walked over to the panel, "Kirk here," he replied,

"I've searched the ship,"

"And?"

"And I found nothing of value, but I did find an ID card, says his name's Spock,"

Jim scowled to himself, he had been hoping they'd be something on board he could sell but looking at the guy he couldn't say he was surprised about his lack of belongings, "OK, well run the ID through the database,"

"Aye Captain," Chekov replied then cut the line.

"So, you're the Captain then?"

Jim turned to see that the Vulcan – Spock – had woken up and was staring at him.

"I am Captain Kirk," Jim said, "And you are apparently Mr Spock,"

Spock slowly got up from the cot and walked towards the glass so that he was standing opposite Jim, "indeed," he finally said.

Jim nodded, "you know Mr Spock, I've never met a Vulcan quite like you,"

"And you've met a lot of Vulcans, have you?"

Jim smirked, "I've met my fair share," he replied, "You run into all sorts of aliens in my line of business,"

"And what an honourable line of business it is," Spock sneered but Jim ignored him,

"We searched your ship," he informed him, "but we found nothing of value. Now that's not surprising, your obviously not a wealthy man, sorry Vulcan, but what is surprising is your ship itself,"

"And why would that be?" Spock asked,

"Well starships are expensive, even small ones and I cannot work out how you got one. Even if you were desperate enough to leave Earth that you'd be willing to trade everything you own for a ship, I don't think you'd be able to afford this ship. I mean, even if you were that desperate to leave Earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were, all aliens are that desperate to leave Earth at the moment, especially Vulcans but, yes, even if you were that desperate, as far as I am aware, there are still shuttles running from Earth to Vulcan, and if that method is too legal for you there are several people like me who would be willing to ferry you back to Vulcan for a fee. Now I know that fee would be far from small, but it would still cost a lot less to higher us than to buy or rent a ship,"

Spock stared at Jim for a second before simply saying, "I built the ship,"

"You built it‽"

"Well, I repaired it," Spock corrected, "it was dumped at the scrapyard I worked at,"

Jim gaped at Spock; Scotty was the best engineer Jim had ever met but even he'd never built a ship from scraps. Jim shook his head, "Well then, I hate to inform you of this but we're going to take your ship as you have nothing else of value,"

Spock's expression remained completely neutral at the news, "And what about me?" he asked,

"We'll ransom you," Jim replied, "Chekov is running your ID as we speak so if there's anybody who should care about you, we'll know soon enough."

Just then the communications panel beeped again, "Chekov to Captain Kirk,"

Jim smirked, "Looks like Chekov's finished running your ID," he walked over to the panel and replied with, "Kirk here, what have you got for me?"

"It's odd sir, his ID appears to be a fake,"

"What do you mean‽" Jim cried,

"There's no record of a Spock, son of Selek in the Vulcan database,"

Jim turned to glance at Spock, "But don't Vulcan's have to be registered into the Vulcan database as soon as they're born?" he asked,

"Yes, exactly. There is however a Vulcan of that name on Earth, but it only starts to appear when the Vulcan would have been seven, at least according to the date of birth on his ID,"

Jim frowned, "So he's been using this identity for a while?" he turned to his Vulcan captative, "I don't suppose you'd care to tell us your real name?" he asked, "Or what happened to make you change your identity at the age of seven?"

"Not particularly," Spock replied without breaking eye contact with Jim.

The Captain smiled darkly, "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Spock rose his eyebrow but he didn't say anything as Jim turned back to the communications panel, "Get Bones to run his finger prints through the Vulcan database, that should get us a match,"

"Aye Captain," Jim smirked slightly to himself as he ended the communication and turned back to Spock. To Jim's surprise the Vulcan's eyes had widened in fear and he no longer appeared as composed as he had just moments before.

"I didn't mention that did I?" Jim said lightly, "When you were unconscious I got our resident doctor to run a few checks on you, standard stuff of course but, at least on this ship, it's standard procedure to document any new patients and that includes taking their finger prints. You'd be amazed how often that comes in useful,"

Spock started to pace back and forth in his cell with his hands balled into fists at his side. He didn't appear to have heard the end of what Jim had said.

Before Jim could ponder the implications of that though, the door to the brig open and somebody walked inside.

"Bones!" Jim cried cheerfully as he swung around to greet the man, "Tell me you've got an ID on this guy,"

"Yes," Bones replied, however he didn't look up from the PADD he was holding, "Jim can you come outside for a second, there's something you need to see,"

Jim sighed but he reluctantly followed Bones out of the brig.

"Go on then," Jim said as soon as the door closed behind them. "What's so important?"

Wordlessly Bones passed Jim the PADD he'd been holding. On it was the profile of a Vulcan. At the top of the profile was a photo of a young Vulcan boy who couldn't have been older than five.

"What's this," Jim asked,

"That's him," Bones replied, nodding towards the brig, "read it,"

"Spock, son of Sarek," Jim started, "Wanted alive by order of the Vulcan high council, reward five million credits - Holy crap! FIVE MILLION CREDITS! Bones imagine what we could do with five million credits!"

Bones sighed and took the PADD back off Jim, "I know but Jim, don't you think there's something not right about this?"

Jim scoffed, "only you could turn your nose up at five million credits," he said,

"Jim…"

"Fine, fine, tell me what's so wrong with all this,"

Bones sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Don't you think it's odd that it says 'wanted alive' Vulcans are hardly known for their…leniency,"

"He probably just didn't commit an especially bad crime," Jim shrugged,

"Yet they're willing to pay five million credits for him,"

Jim groaned, "Who cares," he said, "the fact is they are willing to pay five million for him. That should be all that matters," Jim turned to go back into the brig but a hand on his shoulder stopped him,

"OK but the ID we ran says Spock hasn't been on Vulcan since he was seven, maybe even younger than that, and what possible crime could a seven year old have committed to make him worth five million?"

Jim shrugged, "Not my problem," he said as he strode back into the brig. Bones groaned but followed him inside.

The two me walked in to see Spock crouched next to the door of his cell, however he instantly jumped back and stood with his hands behind his back the moment he saw the two men.

Jim eyes him suspiciously but he didn't say anything as he walked over to the communications panel.

"Kirk to bridge," he said,

"Uhura here Captain,"

"Set course for Vulcan. Maximum warp,"

"Aye aye Captain," Uhura said before signing off.

Jim turned back to look at his Vulcan captive. The fear that had been in his eyes before had now vanished and in its place was steely determination.

"Jim," Bones interrupted, "I still think-"

"Bones," Jim sighed, "Just drop it. Stop over thinking everything. We're just going to drop him off and claim our reward, whatever happens after that is not our problem."

However, before Bones could object further the ship shook violently causing the three men to stumble,

"Captain, we're under attack!" came Uhura's voice from the communications panel,

"On our way," Jim called before he and Bones hurried out of the brig.

The moment Jim and Bones were out of sight Spock knelt back down in front of the door and slipped a small device out from his sleeve. He held it up to the lock and pressed a few buttons as the ship shook again. Spock fell on to his side, however he managed to keep the device in place. There was a quiet popping sound then the door swung open. Spock stood up and slipped the device into a hidden pocket in his jacket.

He hurried out of the brig and ran down the corridor. The ship shook again causing him to crash into a wall. He braced his hands against it to try and regain his balance before setting off again.

He turned the corner to the shuttle bay.

He could see his ship.

He took another step forward however he then froze as he felt the tip of a phaser being pressed into his neck.

"Put your hands up and turn around," came a gruff voice.

Spock closed his eyes and laced his fingers behind the head,

"Now turn around," the voice repeated.

Spock turned around to find himself face to face with a Vulcan in a law enforcement uniform. Spock shook his head slightly, hoping his hair was covering his ears.

The Vulcan leaned forward and grabbed hold of Spock's wrists before slipping a pair of handcuffs on him, "You're under arrest for piracy," the Vulcan said, "you will be taken to a processing centre where you will be evaluated and an appropriate punishment will be dealt,"

"I am not a member of this crew," Spock tried to inform the Vulcan, "I was their prisoner, I was escaping," Spock tried to pull his wrists free, but the Vulcan just tightened his grasp,

"You will be evaluated at a processing centre," he repeated, "if you are found innocent you will be released," the Vulcan tugged at Spock's wrist, indicating that he should move forward.

"I am not going to Vulcan," Spock said, then he brought his leg up and kicked the Vulcan hard. However, before Spock could do anything else the Vulcan drew his phaser with lightning speed and pulled the trigger, shooting Spock.


	3. Chapter 3

Jim moaned in pain. His whole body ached; he felt like he'd been hit by a shuttlecraft.

Slowly, he opened his eyes to find himself lying on his back, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. He tried to move only to find that his hands were cuffed in front of him. He blinked a few times before slowly pushing himself into a sitting position, despite his protesting muscles.

He looked around to see the rest of his crew and Spock lying unconscious on the floor, like him, they were all handcuffed.

The room they were in was stark white and bare. There was no furniture, not even a chair for them to perch on. Not only that, but there wasn't even a window to let any natural light in, there was however, a large door painted the same white as the rest of the room.

Gingerly Jim got to his feet and made his way over to the door. He reached out and jimmied the doorknob, then, when nothing happened, he slammed his whole body into the door.

"Owwww," Jim groaned as he doubled over in pain when the door still didn't move.

"Well this day just keeps getting better and better,"

Jim turned his head to see Bones slowly sitting up,

"Oh, don't be like that Bones," Jim said as he straightened back up. He tried to sound upbeat however he still sounded somewhat winded.

"Why did you order us to Vulcan‽" Uhura asked through gritted teeth as, she too, sat up,

"Because he doesn't think," Bones retorted as Sulu, Chekov and Scotty started to wake up as well,

"Now wait a minute-"

"Surely you must have known we would be arrested the moment we entered Vulcan airspace," Uhura scoffed,

"The Enterprise is listed as a known pirate vessel in the Vulcan database," Chekov chimed in,

"You don't understand," Jim exclaimed, trying to gain control of the conversation,

"What could possibly be worth entering Vulcan airspace for?" Sulu asked,

"Him," Jim said simply, pointing at the still unconscious Vulcan on the floor next to them, "he has a five million bounty on his head!"

Everyone turned to look at Spock.

"So why is he in here with us?" Scotty asked after a second,

"We've got the assume they don't know who he is," Uhura speculated as she shuffled over to Spock,

"I imagine they'll figure it out soon enough though," Bones grumbled.

Before the crew could speculate any further the door to their cell opened and two Vulcans walked in, Jim jumped out of the way and joined the others on the floor,

"You," one of the Vulcans said, indicating to Sulu, "get up,"

Sulu just stared wide-eyed at them, frozen on the floor.

The two Vulcans looked at each other and one of them nodded in confirmation. One of them then marched over to Sulu and hauled him up, "Please come with us for processing," he said.

The others watched, unmoving, as Sulu was led from the room, the door slamming behind him.

"What are they going to do with him?" Chekov asked nervously, once it was clear the Vulcans weren't coming straight back,

"They will run him through their database," came Spock's voice, the crew all spun their heads to see that the Vulcan was now awake too, "They'll see if he's already wanted for any convictions,"

"We're all already known pirates," Uhura said,

"Then they'll run your details and find you instantly guilty," Spock said,

"And what will they find when they run you through the database?" Jim asked somewhat darkly,

"I think you already know the answer to that," Spock replied.

Bones frowned at Spock, but he didn't say anything.

It didn't take long for the two Vulcans to come back, this time they took Uhura. After that they took Scotty, then Chekov. One by one the crew were all taken until it was just Jim, Bones and Spock left.

The door opened once more, and another Vulcan officer entered the room.

"You," the Vulcan said, nodding at Spock this time.

Spock got to his feet, with some difficultly given his tied hands. He turned to look at the Vulcan officer still standing by the door, his eyes seemed to harden as he stared at him.

The gaze was intimidating enough to make Jim to shuffle back slightly, even though it wasn't aimed at him. The Vulcan, however, didn't seem to notice.

He walked over to Spock and took hold of his handcuffs. In a split-second Spock had used the Vulcan's grip on his wrist to spin him around and slam him into the wall, causing the Vulcan's head ricocheted off it, hard enough to make Jim wince.

Spock kneed the Vulcan before slamming him into the wall again. He then made as if to throw the Vulcan to the floor, however before he could the Vulcan seemed to gather his bearings and pushed Spock to the ground.

He landed a quick kick to Spock's ribs before Spock could figure out what had happened, let alone make of move to defend himself.

Jim and Bones turned to look at each other as the Vulcan kicked Spock again. They stared at each other for a second before seeming to reach a mutual decision and jumping to their feet.

They hurried over to Spock and the Vulcan, with Bones going one way and Jim, the other.

Jim punched the Vulcan in the face, as best he could, causing the Vulcan to stumble backwards, giving Spock enough time to get to his feet.

The Vulcan turned towards Jim, however before he could get anywhere Bones kicked him in the back of the knees causing him to fall over.

Spock lunged forward and grabbed hold of the Vulcan's collar. He spun him around and slammed him repeatedly into the wall until he slumped unconscious.

Jim and Bones stared in shock out the outburst of violence however Spock did little more than glanced at the two of them before he calmly knelt down to retrieve the Vulcan's phaser from his belt,

"What, don't we get any weapons?" Jim asked as Spock stood up,

"No," Spock answered simply as he pressed the phaser to his handcuffs and pulled the trigger. The cuffs sprung apart and fell to the ground,

"Any chance you could…?" Jim asked offering out his own cuffed wrists. Spock pressed the phaser to Jim's handcuffs, quickly freeing him before doing the same for Bones.

The three of them all turned to look at the open door.

"How many of them are going to be out there?" Bones asked,

"Only one way to find out," Jim said and the three of them walked out of the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Jim, Spock and Bones crept out of their cell and down the corridor. Spock was in front with his phaser out with Jim and Bones following closely behind him. They reached the end of the corridor and Spock peaked around the corner,

"There are five officers," he informed them, "they're all sitting at their desks,"

"Did you see any of my crew?" Jim asked urgently,

"No," Spock replied, "There were only Vulcans in there,"

Jim closed his eyes and frowned. Bones patted him on the shoulder,

"We should go now before anyone comes looking for the guy we knocked out," Bones said,

"Affirmative," Spock agreed with a quick nod, before stepping out and firing his phaser.

Bones and Jim glanced at each other and Jim shrugged. Bones rolled his eyes then the two of them dashed around the corner, just in time to see Spock take out three of the Vulcans with three quick shots of his phaser.

Spock turned to fire at the fourth Vulcan however, before he got the chance the remaining two Vulcans drew their phasers and fired at the three of them. One of them missed but the other hit Bones and he collapsed onto the floor.

Spock instantly fired at the Vulcan who had shot Bones, but she ducked down behind her desk, causing Spock to narrowly miss her.

The fifth Vulcan fired at Jim, causing him to yelp as threw himself out of the way. The Vulcan missed Jim and the phaser beam scorched the wall behind him. The Vulcan fired again, this time he only narrowly missed Jim, nearly grazing the top of his head.

Jim made a split-second decision and jumped up and lunged at the Vulcan. He tackled him, knocking the two of them over and tried to wrestle the phaser out of his hand.

Meanwhile, Spock and the other Vulcan we engrossed in a tense battle, that probably seemed very dramatic to them, however looked somewhat ridiculous to an outside viewer, as they were both jumping around furniture, trying desperately to hit each other with their phasers, while trying not to be hit themselves.

Eventually, Spock succeeded, and the Vulcan finally slumped down over a desk. He turned to see the grappling match that was still taking place on the floor next to him. He quickly raised his phaser once more, took aim and fired. The last Vulcan instantly flopped down on top of Jim.

Jim pushed the Vulcan off him then got to his feet and dusted himself off, "We need to get to the Enterprise," he said as he finally managed to prise the phaser out the Vulcan's hand,

"We should go through the window," Spock replied,

"What‽"

"There will be more officers coming, she managed to call for help," he nodded at one of the unconscious Vulcans, "if we go through the window, we should avoid most of them,"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Jim said with a sigh as he collected a discarded PADD off a nearby desk,

Spock looked around the room, as if he was actually taking in their surroundings for the first time. His sight finally settled on a simple office chair and he marched over to it,

"We break the window," he said as he picked up the chair, then threw it at the window.

The window shattered into a thousand pieces, spraying shards of glass everywhere.

"…I guess that works," Jim remarked before he gingerly made his way over to the window and looked out. He was relieved to see that they were on the ground floor.

Spock picked Bones up then joined Jim at the window. He took one looked down then proceeded to jump out of the window without any hesitation.

Jim sighed, not be outdone, he jumped out after him.

"Where to now then?" he asked,

"I don't know," Spock said,

"You don't know‽"

"It's not like I've ever been here before,"

Jim groaned and pulled the PADD out of his pocket,

"OK, let's see."

It didn't take Jim long to hack into the PADD and pull up the blueprints of the facility,

"Look, there's a transporter pad here," he said, showing it to Spock,

"That way," Spock said, with a nod of his head.

The two of them jogged past several buildings until they came to a large transporter pad.

Jim hurried over to the control panel. A quick glance at the PADD told him the coordinates of the Enterprise, which he quickly inputted then set up a time delay,

"Ready?"

"Affirmative,"

Jim hit the button then ran over to join Spock and Bones. They were enveloped in a gold light and the three of them disappeared.

They reappeared in the Enterprise sickbay.

Spock placed Bones down on one of the beds then turned to Jim who was already leaving the room,

"I need to go save the others," he said by way of an explanation,

"They won't still be there," Spock said, Jim turned to glare at Spock, "I may not have set foot on Vulcan since I was seven, but I know an awful lot about their legal system. Your crew will already have been placed on a transport ship bound for Vena Lexia IV,"

Jim clenched his fists, "Then I'm going after them!" he shouted, storming out of the room. Spock got up and hurried after him,

"That is not a good idea," he said, "their ship will be heavily armoured and weaponised,"

"What makes you think mine isn't?"

"Yours isn't funded by the Vulcan government,"

Jim growled and rounded on Spock, "Who are you to tell me not to go after my crew? MY FAMILY?" Spock took a small step back, "You are my prisoner! Once I get my crew back, I will turn you in and claim your ransom,"

"I won't let you," Spock replied,

"You won't have a choice," Jim replied before pulling the phaser out of belt and shooting Spock.

-x-

Bones let out a groan, being hit by a phaser was never pleasant. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times as the sight of the Enterprise's sickbay came into view. He turned slightly to see Jim sitting in a chair next to his bed, hunched over a PADD.

"We escaped," Bones said, lacking anything else to say,

Jim looked up and grinned, "Hey, you're awake!"

"Yeah," Bones replied as he sat up, "So…um…what happened?"

Jim's face fell and he turned back to his PADD,

"We escaped," He said simply,

"Obviously,"

Jim sighed, "Well there's not much more to it than that, we didn't manage to save any of the others"

Bones rolled his eyes and looked around the room,

"Where's Spock?" he asked,

"In the brig,"

Bones raised his eyebrow,

"I'm not giving up a five million pay day,"

"That five million pay day nearly got us all arrested!"

"So, I'll be more careful next time."

Bones snorted but let it go. "So, what's the plan?" he asked as he lent over Jim's shoulder to see that he had the Vulcan database up on his PADD,

"We're going to get out crew back," he said, standing up, "We should be able to intercept their transport ship in two days near Perrina,"

"And what happens when we intercept them?"

"We take their ship by force," Jim replied firmly,

"…There's only two of us,"

Jim shrugged, "We managed to break out of prison,"

"I think that was mainly Spock,"

Jim glared at Bones, "I am going to get our crew back and if you aren't going to help me, you can join Spock in the brig,"

Bones signed and gingerly got to his feet. He reached out and touched Jim's shoulder, "I will help you," he said, "I just think we're going to need a proper, detailed plan,"

Jim smiled and pulled Bones into a hug, "I knew I could count on you,"

Bones pulled away and clapped Jim on the shoulder, "Come on. We've got two days to come up with a plan."


	5. Chapter 5

Jim and Bones were sat silently on the bridge. Both of them were staring very intently at the view screen in front of them, almost as if they were too scared to blink, just in case they missed something.

In the last few days they'd rerouted all the weapons, flight, and navigation controls to the bridge so the two of them could operate everything by themselves.

They'd taped the blueprints of the transport ship to the console between the two of them, so they knew exactly where to try and hit when the transport ship finally appeared.

They'd entered orbit around Perrina just under an hour ago and now they were just waiting for the ship to arrive.

"Ship approaching," Bones said, breaking the silence they'd been sitting in for the past hour,

"Is it definitely the transport ship?" Jim asked,

"Give me a sec,"

There was a whirring sound from the console then it pinged, and Bones nodded, "Yes,"

Jim grinned manically, "On the view screen,"

An image of a large grey ship appeared on the screen. It was obviously a prison ship, with its complete lack of decoration and its rows upon rows of tiny windows.

Jim glanced at the blueprints next to him before carefully aiming at where he believed the engine room was.

"Fire!" he shouted before hitting the button on the screen in front of him.

A photon torpedo hit the transporter ship creating a large hole in its hull,

"Fire again!"

The transporter ship rocked wildly on the screen,

"Their warp engines are offline!" Bones cried triumphantly.

Jim whooped and punched the air.

However, the joy didn't last for long, before anything else could happen the Enterprise shook and several alarms started blaring,

"Bones!"

Bones spun around to look at the control panel behind him, "Shields at 76%," Bones reported, "We need to take out their weapons,"

Jim glanced down at the blueprints then repositioned their canons to try and hit their weaponry as the Enterprise shook again,

"58%" Bones said before looking over his shoulder at Jim, "Be careful not to hit any of the cells," he reminded him,

Jim nodded before turning back to his screen and yelling, "Fire!"

The torpedo hit the transport ship but this time it seemed to have very little effect,

"They're raised their shields," Bones cried.

Jim scowled and fired three more torpedoes in quick succession,

"What's the state of their shields now?"

"38%"

Bones had barely finished talking before Jim had turned back to his screen and fired four more torpedoes.

Bones raised an eyebrow, but he didn't comment as he looked back at his screen, "Their shields are offline! And you've managed to take out their cannons!"

Jim nodded but he didn't stop glaring at the view screen, "Try and capture them in the transporter beam!" he ordered,

Bones pressed a few buttons, "We don't have enough power," he cried.

Jim paused for a second before jumping up and hurrying over to another panel, "What if we reroute all the spare power to the transporter beam?"

"That should be enough,"

Jim flicked a few switches then turned and looked hopefully Bones,

"It's working!" Bones exclaimed.

Jim grinned and hurried back over to his seat. He looked down at his screen and was pleased to see that the transporter ship was being pulled towards them.

Jim watched with bated breath as the ship was slowly dragged towards them. Then suddenly just it stopped, and the transport ship froze on Jim's screen,

"What's happening‽" Jim cried,

Bones frowned, "the tractor beam is losing power!"

"What‽"

"Something's draining it!"

"No, no, no, no, no," Jim got up and ran back over to the console, "It's being redirected to the shuttle bay!" he exclaimed, "But why…" His eyes widened and he turned to look at Bones,

"Spock!" they both shouted.

The Enterprise shuddered and another alarm went off,

"A ship just launched from our shuttle bay!"

Jim ran back to the scanner, "There!" he said, pointing at the tiny ship that had just appeared, "Fire at him!"

"Jim-"

"Fire at Spock!"

They fired one photon torpedo.

"Direct hit,"

They'd created a large hole in the side of Spock's ship. The torpedo had obviously hit Spock's engines and damaged them extensively as the ship's orbit quickly deteriorated and it was soon falling to the planet below.

The Enterprise shook once more, causing Jim to look away from his screen,

"The transport ship's pulled free!" Bones yelled.

That was all the warning they got before there was a loud explosion and the Enterprise lurched violently; every alarm started to go off and the lights flashed red.

"We're going down!" Bones shouted. He stood up and pulled at Jim's arm, "We need to evacuate!"

Jim didn't move. He just sat there staring forlornly at the view screen,

"Now Jim!"

Jim turned to look at Bones, "But-"

Bones sighed and gently pulled Jim up, "We'll get them eventually but right now we need to leave,"

Bones ushered Jim off the bridge and to the escape pods. They buckled themselves in then launched.

It didn't take long for them to landed on Perrina.

They landed on a large beach next to a fiery wreckage that could only be Spock's ship. The fire was the only source of light on the otherwise pitch-black beach.

Jim and Bones existed their escape pod just as it was starting to rain.

There was a loud crash and the two of them spun around to see Spock emerge from a metal pod a couple of metres away from the crash site.

Jim clumsily pulled out a phaser and pointed it at Spock, who just gazed at it, a calm mask in place, "You ruined everything!" he yelled, "if it weren't for you, I would have got them back today!"

Spock regarded the phaser coolly, "Are you going to kill me with that?"

Jim flicked the switch from stun to kill,

"Do it," Spock said, much to everyone's surprise, "Do it, kill me," Spock said, "I would rather die than be sold to Vulcan,"

Jim frowned in confusion, but he didn't lower the phaser.

Spock scoffed, "You were so desperate to claim the bounty that you didn't even stop and think what would happen to me. Did you not wonder why they wanted me alive? They want to lock me up in a lab and experiment on me. They want to torture me and call it science, until they inevitably take it too far and kill me!"

"Why?" Bones asked quietly, "Why would they do that?"

"Because I am a pathetic little half-breed. My very existence is illegal, and both my parents died because of it."

Nobody said anything for a few moments, it was silent apart from the crackling sound of the ship burning around them.

Jim continued to glare at Spock for a second before he slowly lowered the phaser.

Spock gave him one last look before he turned and walked off.


	6. Chapter 6

It had taken all night and most of the next morning, but eventually Jim and Bones found the crash site of the Enterprise.

It had landed in the middle of a large forest, not too far from the beach they had landed on.

Many of the trees had been damaged when the ship had crashed, knocking several of them down, however, at first glance, the Enterprise seemed to have survived with little more than a few scratches.

Upon closer inspection though it became clear that this wasn't the case. It looked as if the crash had done little harm to the Enterprise, the fight however was a different story. An initial assessment showed major damage to the Enterprise's shields and more importantly, the warp drive.

Jim let out a groan and ran his hand over his face. He was sitting on top of the Enterprise disk debating what to do.

"Here," Jim turned to see Bones standing behind him holding out a glass of whisky,

"Thanks," Jim took the glass and took a large swig.

Bones took that as an invitation to sit down next to him, "So, how bad is it?" he asked,

"Bad," Jim replied, taking another sip, "it's…bad. The wrap drive is in pieces and I don't know how to fix it and we can't get another one,"

"Why not?"

"Because this model is no longer in production and second-hand ones are very rare and expensive,"

Bones downed the remainder of his whisky, "You sure you can't fix it?"

"Oh yeah, Scotty would probably be able to fix it but…well,"

The two of them sat in silence for a while, wallowing in their misery,

"You know," Bones said cautiously, "Spock built his own ship,"

Jim's head snapped up, "What are you saying?"

"Spock might be able to fix the warp drive,"

Jim scoffed, "We can't ask Spock for help,"

"Jim-"

"Why on Earth would Spock help us?"

"Jim, we're desperate,"

"We held him prisoner!"

Bones sighed, wishing he hadn't finished his whisky, "No, he probably won't just help us, but he's stuck on a planet full of pirates with the biggest bounty I've ever seen on his head. He'll be just as desperate as we are to get off this planet,"

Jim groaned, "We'd have to find him-"

"This isn't a massive planet, and he can't have gone that far since yesterday, I doubt he has any money,"

"Bones…"

"Jim, do you have a better idea?"

Jim didn't reply, he just stared down at his glass,

"It can't hurt to ask him," Bones pointed out, "and at that moment he's the best chance we've got."

-x-

Spock was sat in a corner booth at the back of a busy bar. Several maps were spread out on the table in front of him as well as a few pamphlets and business cards.

He needed to find a way off this planet as soon as possible. He'd heard about Perrina before, it had a formidable reputation as a hub of criminal activity. Thieves, smugglers and pirates all used Perrina as a pitstop in their tirades.

Spock took out a pen and circled a few things on the map closest to him.

He was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice Captain Kirk enter the bar and sit down opposite him until he coughed.

Spock looked up and frowned slightly. He quickly gathered his maps into his arms and stood up,

"Wait, no, Spock, I just want to talk," Jim exclaimed,

Spock froze, but he didn't turn back to Jim,

"Please sit down," Jim sighed.

Spock rose an eyebrow at him, but he did sit down, "What do you want?" Spock asked,

Jim shut his eyes, "Ok, I'll cut straight to the chase, do you think you could repair a warp engine?"

"It would depend on what was wrong with it,"

"But you have a working knowledge of them?"

"Obviously,"

Jim sighed, "OK, so me and Bones were assessing the damage to the Enterprise this morning and the warp engine is in pieces-"

"And you want me to repair it," Spock finished.

Jim buried his head in his hands, "Yeah,"

"And why should I do that?"

"I'll pay you," he said, "Please, as much as it pains me to say it, you're my best option,"

"How much?"

"Ten thousand credits,"

"Negative," Spock replied,

"Twenty thousand," Spock stood up and turned to leave,

"Twenty-five thousand!" Jim shouted, "Please Spock!"

Spock turned and regarded Jim. He nodded slightly, "Deal,"

Jim laughed slightly in shock and smiled, "Deal," he repeated as he held out his hand.

Spock stared at it but didn't shake his hand. Instead he turned around and started towards the exit,

"Show me this warp drive," he said over his shoulder. Jim grinned and hurried after him.

-x-

Jim and Bones stood by the edge of the crash site while Spock ran his own assessment on the Enterprise.

Eventually Spock finished and walked over to Jim, "This is what I need," Spock said, presenting him with a list. The list was comprised of mainly tools however there was also a few components on the list,

"Why do you need a fuse box?" he asked, "Surely there already was one in the warp drive,"

"I'm sure there was one," Spock replied, "however there isn't one anymore. I estimate that it was jettisoned when your ship crashed,"

Jim ran a hand over his face, "OK," he sighed, "Right, I'll go to town and get this stuff, Bones, you and Spock stay here and guard the ship,"

"Guard the ship?"

Jim glanced at Spock, "Just keep an eye on it."

-x-

It was late when Jim finally got back to the Enterprise.

"You took your time," Bones said, looking up from the book he was reading. He eyed the bags the Jim was carrying, "Get everything?"

"Yep," he said dumping the bags on the ground, "Have we got any food?"

"The replicators are offline," Spock said, walking out of the ship and picking up Jim's bags,

"What‽ Really‽"

"I should have them working by tomorrow," Spock said before heading back into the ship.

Jim groaned before turning back to Bones, "Booooonnnes,"

"What?"

"Can you go get us some food please?"

"Seriously? You just went to town!"

"I didn't pick up any food though,"

Bones sighed,

"Please,"

"Fine," Bones grumbled as he got to his feet, "But only because I'm fed up of babysitting him."

-x-

Spock instantly got to work unpacking the shopping and methodically laying everything out on the floor of the engine room.

"Hey,"

Spock looked up to see Jim standing in the doorway,

"Bones has gone to get us food,"

"I gathered," Spock said as he continued to work,

Jim watched as Spock arranged the tools in size order,

"So," he began awkwardly as he walked further into the room, "…how are you?"

Spock looked up, his eyes boring into Jim,

"Kirk, I may have agreed to work for you for now but that does not make us friends. I have not forgotten that you were perfectly willing to sell me as a scientific experiment,"

"Hey! I didn't know-"

"You didn't care! So, let's get one thing straight, I am only here because it benefits me. We are not friends. I have not forgiven you, so don't try and make small talk with me!"

The two of them glared at each other.

At that moment Bones walked in carrying some pizza boxes. He glanced between of them and lifted his eyebrow at the tension in the room. Before Bones could ask what had happened Jim stormed over and plucked a box out of his hand. Bones sighed and held out another box to Spock, who then sat down on the floor and opened the box up,

"Sorry I couldn't get anything Vulcan," Bones apologised.

"It doesn't matter," Spock said as he picked up a slice, "I leant a long time ago to take what I'm given."


	7. Chapter 7

Jim looked around as he walked onto the bridge of the Enterprise and shuddered. He was used to being alone on the bridge but for some reason it felt creepy now that the scene outside of the view screen was a forest instead of millions of stars.

Jim took a deep breath and sat down in front of a computer console. He loaded it up and after a few minutes he had drawn up the Vulcan database.

"There you are,"

Jim looked over his shoulder to see Bones had walk onto the bridge. Jim made a noncommittal sound as he turned back to the screen.

"Any news?" Bones asked once he noticed what Jim was doing,

"They've all been sentence to a place called Kai'Xendith," he said glumly,

"What's that?"

"A Vulcan penal colony," Jim replied, "Kai'Xendith is where they send their worse criminals. It has a reputation for being especially cruel,"

"Great,"

Jim stared at his screen for a second before abruptly standing up, sending his chair flying backwards, "We need to get going," he said, as if a switch had suddenly been flicked in his head and he was now focusing on a mission and nothing else, "I don't want to leave them there any longer than necessary," he continued, "In fact I'm going to go and tell Spock we need to leave right now,"

Bones reached out and put a hand on Jim's shoulder, "Jim, just sit down and take a breath,"

Jim glared defensively at Bones for a second before he deflated, his shoulders slumped and he allowed himself to be pushed back into a chair by Bones,

"Spock is working as quickly as he can, you storming in there is not going to change that, in fact it might slow him down,"

"It's my fault they're there, Bones," Jim whispered, "I can't just leave them,"

"You're not go to," Bones said, kneeling down in front of Jim, "but we aren't able to take off just yet,"

Jim ran his hand through his hair, "Right," he said, "right…we need a plan,"

Bones stood back up and nodded, "Yes. We have at least a week before we can get going so let's spend the next week learning everything we can about Kai'Xendith,"

"Yes," Jim agreed, turning back to the computer, "I'll see what I can find."

-x-

Jim and Bones were still on the bridge that evening when Spock walked in to tell them that the replicators were now online,

"Thanks," Jim muttered, not looking up from the paper he was pouring over.

Bones looked up and nodded at him, "Hey Spock, what do you know about Kai'Xendith?" he asked,

"Nothing in particular," Spock said, "I know it's reputation," he walked over and looked over Jim's shoulder, "I do however know it is heavily guarded and therefore you will not get in like that,"

Jim sighed and looked up at Spock, "how's repairs of the ship going?"

"I am on schedule," Spock replied.

"You should come with us," Bones said suddenly, causing Jim and Spock to look at him,

"I'm sorry?"

"Spock should come with us to Kai'Xendith," Bones said,

"Absolutely not!"

"And why would I do that?"

"Think about it, Jim," Bones said, ignoring Spock for the moment, "The two of us aren't getting in without any help and you saw how quickly Spock managed to escape from that holding cell on Vulcan,"

Jim's eyes flicked to Spock but he didn't say anything so Bones kept going, "the guy can kick ass and that really is what we need for this mission,"

"Why would I help you?" Spock asked again but this time he actually managed to get hold of the other two's attention.

Jim and Bones stared at each other for a few moments as if having a silent conversation before Jim finally turned to Spock and said, "What do you want? We can pay you more money?"

Spock shook his head, "It would have to be a considerable sum,"

Jim thought for a second then smirked, "I know!" he said, "If you help us, I will give you a lift to anywhere you want to go. Any planet in the quadrant,"

"Any planet?"

"Any planet," Jim confirmed,

Spock nodded at Jim, "Deal," He said, "After we have rescued your crew you will take me to Orion,"

"Orion?" Bones asked,

"Affirmative, I have a friend there and she has offered me a place to stay,"

"It's a deal."

-x-

Over the next week Spock spent all of his time hauled up in the engine room, fixing the warp drive, while Jim spent a lot of his time watching Spock while he kept an eye out for news on the Vulcan database.

During the week, he realised that maybe Spock wasn't that bad as he first thought, if he steered clear of Spock's past the guy was actually perfectly willing to chat to him, especially about what he was working on.

He also couldn't deny that he found Spock attractive, he had since he first saw him in the brig on the Enterprise, but there was something even better about watching him expertly fix his ship.

Soon though, the week was over, and they were ready to launch.

-x-

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Jim asked as he watched Spock run the last of his diagnostic tests, "After all this ship was not designed to take off from the ground,"

"This plan has a sixty-three percent chance of success," Spock replied,

"That's…not great odds,"

"They are better than fifty percent and besides, this is still the best chance we have," Spock pointed out.

Jim sighed and flopped down into his Captain's chair, "Just do me a favour, don't tell Bones those odds,"

Spock made a noncommittal noise and he quickly typed in a few commands, "Speaking of the good doctor, if you would get him, we are ready for take-off,"

"Or as ready as we'll ever be," Jim muttered before flicking the comms switch, "Bones, we're ready, come to the bridge,"

Jim then got up and walked over to Spock, "What do you need me to do?"

Spock got out of his chair and indicated for Jim to sit down,

"Keep me updated on that percentage," he said, pointing to the screen, "And let me know if that bar changes colour,"

Jim nodded and started to do up his harness as Bones walked onto the bridge,

"Bones! Come get strapped in," Jim called out as Spock too settled down in a chair,

"You two ready to kill us then?" he said gruffly,

"We're not going to die," Jim said cheerfully. Spock opened his mouth as if to disagree however he stopped when Jim glared at him.

"Kirk, please press that yellow button to your right," Spock said.

There was a loud crash and the sound of the engines kicked in.

Bones tightened his grip on his harness.

Spock flicked a few switches, "Ten seconds until launch," he announced, not taking his eyes off the screen in front of him.

There was another crash then a rumbling sound as the floor started to shake,

"Is that meant to happen?" Bones asked.

Spock ignored him. "Five," he said, beginning a count down, "Four…Three…Two…One,"

Spock shoved a leaver and the ship lurched forward, "Percentage," he called out.

It took Jim a moment to realise that Spock was talking to him. He turned to his screen, "Twelve," he said,

"Tell me when it gets to twenty-five percent,"

Jim watched as the number slowly grew until he called out to Spock, "Now!"

Spock hit several buttons then slowly pulled a lever towards him.

The Enterprise lurched forward again but then it fell backwards, pinning everyone to their seats.

"We're in the air," Spock announced,

Jim glanced at his screen, "Spock! The bar turned orange,"

Spock said something in a language that Jim did not understand, then leaned over and pulled up a screen covered in numbers, "Kirk, hold that button down until I say so," he said as he started to type in long sequences of numbers, "also if you could flick that blue switch when that screen lights up."

The screen lit up and Jim flicked the switch. Suddenly the lights on the bridge went out and they were plunged into darkness, except the light coming from Jim and Spock's screens,

"What's happening‽" Bones cried,

Spock glanced at him but didn't answer, "Let go…now,"

Jim let go and instantly the lights came back on,

"Colour?"

Jim turned to look at his screen and grinned,

"Blue," He reported.

Spock nodded his affirmation, "And percentage?"

"Fifty-three,"

There was the sound of metal breaking,

"That was meant to happen," Spock said before either of the other two could ask,

"That's not reassuring!" Bones cried.

An alarm went off and Spock hit a few buttons, then everything went silent.

After a second Spock unbuckled his harness, "We are in orbit," he announced.

Jim grinned at him as he too got up, "Set course for Kai'Xendith then Mr Spock."


	8. Chapter 8

Bones stepped out of the turbolift and on to the bridge. He looked around, taking in the quiet scene that greeted him. Spock was sitting at the science station doing god knows what. The science station hadn't really been used before Spock showed up, but the Vulcan seemed to have taken to it in a way nobody else ever had.

Jim had been surprisingly nice to Spock ever since they'd taken off, he'd been very enthusiastic to show Spock around the Enterprise and honestly seemed to genuinely enjoy having Spock on the bridge with him.

Spock, for his part, seemed perfectly content to remain as distant as possible, only speaking to Bones or Jim when he needed to.

Bones walked over to the Captain's chair, where Jim was sitting, pouring over a PADD that undoubtably showed the status of the rest of his crew.

In the past week Jim had taken to looking at the Vulcan database just to check on his crew whenever he had a spare moment, despite the fact that nothing ever changed.

Bones plucked the PADD out of Jim's hand, causing him to look up in shock, "Bones!" Jim cried, noticing him for the first time, "What can I do for you?"

"We need to stop for supplies soon,"

"What‽ Why?"

"We need to replace our codeine supply,"

"And we couldn't have done that on Perrina?"

"I didn't notice our supply was about to expire until an hour ago plus, buying medicine off pirates is not the best plan,"

"There's a planet half a day away that should have what you need," Spock chimed in, obviously having been listening in on their conversation.

"What's it called?" Jim asked,

"Rosine IV,"

Bones swore causing Spock to raise an eyebrow at him, "We can't stop there," he said, "I will be arrested if I go down to that planet,"

"Why?" Spock questioned but Jim just shook his head at him,

"Don't ask," he said as he stood up and patted Bones on the shoulder, "It's OK Bones," he said, "me and Spock'll go down and get what we need, you can stay and watch the ship,"

"Do you even know what it is we need?"

"Yes," Jim scoffed,

"You require a new batch of codeine," Spock said as he stood up and walked over to the navigation panel.

Jim pointed at Spock, "See Bones, we've got this. Spock set course for Rosine IV."

It was early evening by the they arrived at Rosine IV. The three of them all gathered in the transporter room with Bones standing at the controls and Jim and Spock on the transporter pad.

"We shouldn't be longer than an hour," Jim said, "We'll call you when we're back at the beam up point." He turned to Spock, "You ready?"

"Affirmative,"

"Energise."

The two of them disappeared in a gold light before they materialised on the surface of the planet.

Spock instantly pulled out a tricorder and started scanning the surface, "We should be able to get some codeine if we walk this way," he announced before setting off, still holding his tricorder out in front of him.

Jim stared after him for a second before shaking his head and running to catch up with him.

"So, how do you like the Enterprise?" Jim asked, as he fell into step with Spock,

"It is a most impressive ship,"

Jim smiled, "It is isn't? It's like the seventh member of my crew,"

"That's illogical," Spock said,

Jim just shrugged, "You'd think that too if you'd had as many adventures with it as I have. I can't tell you how many times that ship has saved me,"

"I doubt it."

Jim smirked to himself, "So how much further?" he asked, trying to look over Spock's shoulder at the tricorder he was holding,

"Not much further, it's just over that hill,"

Jim nodded, "So, ermmm…"

"Kirk," Spock interrupted, "Please don't feel the need to make small talk, I am perfectly comfortable walking in silence,"

"Gocha."

The two of them walked in semi-awkward silence over the hill and into a small town,

"There is a pharmacist just up a head," Spock said, breaking the silence,

"Good, I take it you know what the thing Bones wants looks like?"

"Indeed," Spock said, before stopping suddenly,

"Spock?"

"Are we stealing the codeine or paying for it?"

"Paying for it," Jim replied, pulling some coins out of his pocket,

Spock nodded to himself then walked into the shop.

Jim followed him but he soon left Spock to find what they needed and wandered over to the counter,

"Hey," he smiled at the pretty Betazoid behind the till,

The Betazoid looked him up and down and shook her head with a smile, "Cute," she said, "but it's not going to happen,"

"Can't blame a guy for trying," he said just as Spock reappeared, "hey, found it?"

"Affirmative," Spock said as he placed the codeine on the counter.

Jim gave the Betazoid the money and Spock put the codeine in his pocket.

"Look Spock," Jim said, as they started to walk back, "About what you said the other week on Perrina: I am sorry. You were right, I didn't want to know what was going to happen to you because then I'd have to care. Bones even tried to warn me-"

"James T. Kirk!" came a shout from behind them.

Jim and Spock spun around to see three men standing behind them.

"Do I know you?" Jim asked.

The man in the middle smiled dangerously at him, "My name is Toby Keeler," he said, "You killed my sister so now I'm going to kill you!"

Before Jim could process what was happening, Toby lunged at him, knocking him to the ground and the other two men each drew a knife.

Toby pinned Jim down and swiftly punched him in the face, causing Jim to gasp in pain and his nose to start bleeding. Toby swung his arm back to punch Jim again when suddenly he was ripped off of Jim and thrown into a nearby tree so hard that he was instantly knocked out.

Jim sat up in shock, momentarily forgetting about his nose, just in time to see Spock lunge at one of the other men.

Spock punched the man in the throat, disorientating him, then quickly kicked him in the kneecap knocking the man over.

The man tried to get back up but before he got the chance Spock kicked him in the back knocking him down again. Spock then pinned the man's arm down with his foot and pried his knife out of his hand. He quickly turned and threw the knife at the tree Toby was slumped against. The knife it lodged itself into the bark several feet above Toby's head. Spock then turned back to the man on the floor who was squirming desperately, trying to get free of Spock's foot. Spock let out a slight sigh then stamped on the man's head knocking him out.

Spock then turned to the final man, who until this point had just stood frozen, watching Spock in action.

The man screamed as soon as Spock looked at him, "No!" he shouted as he dropped his knife and ran off.

Jim shakily got to his feet and gaped at Spock,

"How…? What…?" He tried but he couldn't seem to form a coherent sentence.

Spock march over to him and took hold of his arm, "We need to get back to the beam up point," he said as he started to drag Jim along after him.

Once they were at the beam up point Spock fished Jim's communicator out of his pocket and flipped it open,

"Spock to Enterprise," he said,

"McCoy here,"

"Two to beam up."

The two of them dissolved in a gold light then reappeared on the Enterprise.

Spock finally let go of his tight grip on Jim's arm the moment they reappeared. He then jumped off the transporter pad, handed Bones the codeine and stormed out of the room, leaving behind a confused Bones and a still shocked Jim.


	9. Chapter 9

Jim found himself unable to sleep that night. He tossed and turned for hours until he eventually gave up and decided to go for a walk.

In the past, Jim had always found wandering around the Enterprise at night comforting. He'd always enjoyed the solitude of it, just him and the sound of the ship's engines. But tonight, the quiet just made it easier for his thoughts to spiral. He couldn't get the events of the day out of his head. Toby had been willing to kill him, and it had awoken several terrible memories he'd tried hard to supress.

After aimlessly wandering around the ship for what felt like hours, Jim eventually found himself standing outside the gym. Well, if he couldn't sleep maybe exercise would help.

Jim pushed open the door and to his surprise the lights were already on. He walked inside to see a topless Spock viciously punching a punching bag.

Jim's gaze travelled over Spock's body. The Vulcan was clearly athletic, and he definitely knew his way around a punching bag (not that that was surprising given the way the guy fought). Not to mention, his hair was bouncing up and down in time with his punches in the most adorable way.

Jim shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts. "Hi," he said, "Couldn't sleep either?"

Spock didn't say anything he just glanced up at Jim for a second before continuing his attack on the punching bag,

Jim sighed and took several steps further into the room, "Look, I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life today,"

Spock still didn't say anything, he just hit the punching bag again.

After watching the Vulcan for a second, Jim decided that Spock had the right idea, taking his frustrations out on a punching bag, so he walked over to the one next to Spock, picked up a pair of gloves and slide them on. Jim punched the bag and smiled slightly to himself. There was something satisfying about that. He took another swing, causing the bag to sway slightly, and nodded to himself, this definitely seemed preferable to sleeping.

"Widen your stance slightly," Spock said suddenly, after about five minutes,

"What?" Jim turned his head to see that Spock had stopped boxing and was just standing next to his punching bag watching him,

"If you widen your stance you can put more power into your punch,"

Jim went to turn back to his punching bag when Spock spoke again, "Also you should swing more from your hips,"

Jim nodded and swung at the bag, "Like that?"

Spock stared at Jim for a second before he marched over to him and placed one hand on Jim's hip and one on his arm. He then gently moved Jim's body, slowly demonstrating the punch, "Like that,"

Spock took a step back and Jim repeated the movement on his own, punching the bag and causing it to swing out. He looked over his shoulder and grinned at Spock, "Thanks," he said. Jim turned back to his punching bag then paused before he could hit it. He turned to look at Spock who had walked back over to his own punching bag, "Hey, are you OK after today?" Jim asked,

Spock didn't look over, he just punched the bag again, "I am Vulcan, I don't feel," he said after a second,

"So, you're just attacking that punching bag because…?" Jim watched as Spock hit the bag a few more times,

"Normally a Vulcan would meditate," Spock said eventually,

"But you're not," Jim said evenly,

"No. I am not skilled at meditation, I can only reach the surface levels of my mind,"

Jim nodded, trying to make it look like he understood what Spock was saying, "And why's that?" he asked,

"I left Vulcan before I ever learnt how," Spock explained, "My father started teaching me but once he was killed nobody cared, or knew how, to teach me,"

"So, you come and take your frustrations out at the gym," Jim summarised,

"It's very unvulcan," Spock said. Jim thought he could detect a hint of bitterness in the Vulcan's voice but he decided not to comment on it.

Jim watched Spock box for a little while longer before he abandoned his own punching bag and walked over to Spock, "Do you want to spar?" he offered,

Spock looked him up and down before nodding slightly, "Affirmative," he agreed.

Jim smiled slightly at him then took his shoes off and stepped into the middle of the room, "Come on then," he said.

Spock stared at Jim for a second before stepping forward to join Jim in the centre of the room.

Spock raised his arms up in a fighting stance and the two men nodded at each other. Instantly, Jim lunged at Spock. He took one swing at Spock's head, but Spock easily blocked his punch.

In one swift movement Spock grabbed hold of Jim's forearm and spun him around, pinning his arm to his back. Before Jim could do anything to retaliate Spock then swiped his legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground. Jim sat back up and made to kick at Spock's legs, however Spock dodged out of the way just in time.

Jim climbed back to his feet, but Spock was ready for him. Once more he blocked Jim's attack then punched Jim in the face.

Jim let out a pained moan, but he didn't let up his attack. He tried to kick Spock in the knee, but Spock was quicker, sending Jim tumbling back to the ground,

"Do you yield?" he asked,

"No way," Jim kicked Spock's legs, finally managing to get a hit in, and sent Spock tumbling to the ground too. Jim instantly jumped on top of Spock, pinning him down. However, before Jim could ask him if he yield Spock flipped the two of them over.

"Do you yield?" Spock asked again.

Jim desperately tried to pull himself free from Spock's grasp but after a few seconds of writhing on the floor, he eventually realised his attempts were fruitless and he went limp underneath Spock, "Ok I yield," he said.

Spock climbed off Jim and sat down on the mat next to him.

"You're good," Jim said as he sat up, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Quora VII," Spock replied,

"The orphan colony?"

"Affirmative,"

Jim's eyes widened in shock. He'd heard stories about Quora VII, none of the good. Parents tried to scare their children into behaving by telling them tales about what would happen if they didn't and ended up on Quora VII.

He'd heard terrible stories about starving children and about the wardens there abusing their power. He'd even heard one description of the planet that involved the children there being forced to participate in a fighting ring! However, Jim had never actually met anyone who'd grown up there.

"If I hadn't been able to fight, I would have died a long time ago," Spock said somewhat cryptically,

"What do you mean?"

"There were several ways of get food on Quora VII but all of them involved fighting for it, and even then, once I had food I had to fight to keep it," Jim watched as Spock gazed into the distance, "Everyone there was starving, and they were more than willing to do whatever it took to get food,"

"So, all the stories I've heard about Quora VII…?"

"Are most likely true," Spock confirmed, "I ran away when I was fifteen, I decided that being a homeless Vulcan on _Earth_ was preferable to staying there,"

"You managed to escape Quora VII? I thought the regulations about entering and leaving there were super strict‽"

Spock nodded, "They are, however once a week supplies were delivered, so I spent several months working out how to hack the security gates without getting caught. Once I'd done that it was relatively easy to stow away on a cargo ship and get to Earth,"

"You know, you get more and more impressive the more I learn about you," Jim remarked, and, although the expression on Spock's face didn't change, his eyes did seem to light up in a small smile.

Jim grinned back at Spock before climbing back to his feet and offering his hand to Spock, who stared at Jim for a second before slowly taking Jim's hand and letting him pull him up.

"Do you want to spar again, or do you want to go back to bed?" Jim asked,

"Let's spar again," Spock replied, "I'll try and give you some pointers."


	10. Chapter 10

Jim slowly walked into the mess hall the next day. Every step he took hurt; he tried to stretch his legs out to make it better but that just made his muscles protest further.

He had minimal injuries from the previous night, something that was no doubt a conscious decision on Spock's part, however his body ached all over and all Jim wanted to do was curl up in bed and go back to sleep.

Jim stumbled over to the replicator to get some breakfast. He stared at the section for a second before he selected a bacon sandwich and a large mug of coffee, then walked over to where Bones was sitting.

"Afternoon," Bones greeted as Jim flopped down into the seat opposite him,

Jim mumbled an acknowledgement in reply as he took a large bite of sandwich, then an even larger gulp of coffee.

Bones frowned disapprovingly, "Good God man, do you know what that amount of coffee will do to a person?" he asked,

"Shhh," Jim replied, not even bothering to look up, "not right now,"

Bones raised his eyebrow however he didn't say anything else and the two of them continued to eat their breakfast in silence.

"Hey, so listen," Jim said once he was halfway through his sandwich, "did you know Spock was on Quora VII?"

Bones hummed noncommittedly, "Yes, it's in his Earth file,"

"Huh," Jim frowned as he took another bite of his breakfast, feeling slightly put out at having not already known about Quora VII, especially when Bones already did,

"How did you find out?" Bones asked, "Because I know for a fact that you didn't read his file,"

"Spock told me last night,"

Bones raised an eyebrow, "What were you doing with Spock last night?" he asked with a slight smirk,

Jim rolled his eyes, "We were sparing," he replied causing Bones to snort,

"So…he kicked your ass?"

"…Yeah," Jim begrudgingly admitted, "he did give me some good tips though,"

Bones took a sip of his drink and stared at Jim for a few seconds, "You seem to be getting on better with our resident Vulcan," he said,

"He's interesting," Jim replied defensively,

"That's definitely one word for it," Bones muttered,

"He incredibly intelligent and can kick everyone's ass,"

Bones nodded slightly, "you like him," he observed,

"Don't you?" Jim frowned,

Bones shrugged, "I haven't really spent much time with him, but he seems just as stuck up as any other Vulcan to me,"

"Well he's not!" Jim snapped,

"If you say so. However, I know for a fact that he'll give you a lecture if you're late to the bridge, which you will be if you don't leave right now,"

Jim sighed and picked up what was left of his sandwich, "Alright, I'm going. You coming with me?"

Bones nodded and stood up,

"You'd think being in charge would mean I wouldn't be able to be late," Jim muttered as the two of them stepped into the turbolift.

They arrived on the bridge to find Spock already there, sitting at the science station, "Kirk. Doctor," he greeted them, with a slight nod of his head,

Jim smiled and walked over to him, "Hey, Spock," he said, resting his chin on Spock's shoulder, "What are you up to?"

"I have been trying to come up with a plan to get us into Kai'Xendith," Spock replied, as he shrugged Jim off his shoulder.

Jim stood back up straight and walked over to the Captain's chair, "Well I hope you're doing better than me," he remarked as he sifted through the PADDs Spock had left out for him, "What you got?"

"I've been researching the approach procedure for Kai'Xendith," Spock started, "We can't approach in this ship, it's far too big. They would work out immediately what was going on and attack us. Now, if it were to come to that we should be able to hold our own, given the weapons capability of this ship, however that would do very little to aid us in rescuing your crew,"

"Brilliant," Bones snorted from behind Jim,

Spock glanced at Bones however he did nothing else to acknowledge him, "However your escape shuttle should be small enough to not raise any red flags for them,"

"Ok," Jim nodded slowly, "Something tells me there's going to be more to it than that, they're aren't just going to let us in because our ship is small,"

"Affirmative," Spock agreed, "They will broadcast a signal to us, and we must reply with a signal of our own with the correct wavelength and frequency or they will attack us, and they would win a fight against your escape shuttle,"

"Well that sounds easy,"

Spock continued as if Jim hadn't said anything, "I can build a device that will allow us to receive and transmit the signal,"

Jim nodded thoughtfully, "Will that be enough?"

"Negative," Spock said, "Both of the wavelengths and both the frequencies are very specific and if we get them wrong-"

"They will attack us," Jim finished,

"And beat us," Bones weighed in with a sense of false cheeriness,

"Indeed," Spock agreed, not quite understanding the sarcasm in Bones's voice, "And the wavelengths and the frequencies change daily,"

At that Jim smiled,

"What?" Bones asked, "that look has never led to anything good,"

"If they change daily then the wavelengths must be stored somewhere so that any ships that need them can access them and find out what they are,"

Spock nodded, "You are correct," he said, "the wavelengths and the frequencies are stored on a separate server which is protected by a sophisticated firewall that I cannot hack, however," Spock turned to look Jim directly in the eye, "given how easily you seem to be able to hack the Vulcan database you should be able to do it,"

Jim beamed at Spock, "I'll get right to it," he said, jumping out of the Captain's chair, "Spock, you get right to building the…transmitter? …Receiver? Whatever you want to call it. Bones…" Jim frowned at his friends for a moment, "man the bridge."

"Wait, Jim, hang on a second," Bones cried, grabbing hold of his friend's arm as he made to leave the bridge, "What are we going to do once we get to the prison?"

"That's much more straight forward," Spock said, "once we get there, Kirk and I will locate your crew, then bring them back to the shuttle bay. After that we will disable the field around the shuttle bay that prohibits beaming and you shall beam us back to the Enterprise,"

"Simple," Bones scoffed,

"Wait, we're not taking the shuttle back?" Jim asked,

"Negative, if we leave in the shuttle they will attack us as they will then know that we are hostile,"

"Can't we take out their weapons?" Jim asked,

Spock paused for a second, "Believe me when I tell you this is the best plan we have,"

Jim stared at Spock for a second then smiled, "Ok…Ok, me and Spock will get to work, Bones, let us know if anything interesting happens."


	11. Chapter 11

Jim was sat on his bed staring at his PADD screen, just as he had been doing for the last fourteen hours. Spock really hadn't been lying about the Vulcan firewall, it was kicking his ass.

There was a suddenly a loud knock on the door that caused Jim to briefly glance up from his work, "come in," he called, before turning back to his screen.

The door opened to reveal Bones standing there with a frown on his face, "Jim," he sighed as he took in the sight in front of him, "you need to take a break,"

"I can't take a break," Jim said, not taking his eyes off of his PADD, "I'm nearly there,"

Bones walked over to Jim and looked down over his shoulder, however none of what he saw made sense, "You're nearly there?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't take more than three more hours, five hours tops,"

Bones sighed dramatically and snatched Jim's PADD out of his hand, "When was the last time you ate?"

"Erm…"

"Jim, please, take a break, just for an hour or so, and go get something to eat,"

Jim reached to grab his PADD but Bones moved it out of the way,

"Food," he said, "You can have this back once you've eaten,"

Jim huffed but got off the bed, he started towards the replicator, but Bones stopped him, "No, go to the mess hall, it's not healthy to stay in the same room for so long,"

"Fine!" Jim said, as he turned on his heals and stormed out of the room,

"And take a shower!" Bones shouted after him.

-x-

Jim fetched himself a sandwich from the mess hall, then headed down to the shuttle bay. He walked in to find Spock sitting in the middle of the room next to the shuttle, surrounded by scrap metal and wires, "How's it going?" Jim asked,

"I have started to build the transmitter," Spock said, "However you don't appear to have the right sort of circuit board,"

Jim walked across the room and looked over Spock's shoulder, "Just make a list of everything you need, we'll make a stop at some point to buy them,"

Spock turned to look at Jim, almost as if he was actually noticing him for the first time since he'd walked in the room, "What are you doing here," he asked,

"Bones made me take a break," Jim explained with a shrug,

Spock nodded, "It is important to take regular breaks or your work will suffer,"

Jim frowned slightly as he stood back up, "Have you taken a break?" he asked,

"Negative,"

"Spock!"

"Vulcan's do not require breaks,"

Jim sighed and tugged slightly on Spock's arm, "Take a break with me Spock,"

"I am busy,"

Jim sighed, "either take a break with me or I'll keep annoying you until Bones gives me my PADD back,"

"Are you not the Captain?"

"Exactly so you should do as I say,"

"I am not a member of your crew," Spock pointed out,

"Please," Jim pouted.

Spock raised an eyebrow at him but after a second, he got to his feet, causing Jim to grin at him, "Brilliant!" he said, "come on, let's go to the observation deck,"

Spock nodded and dutifully followed Jim out of the room.

"Actually, there's something I've been wanting to ask you about," Spock said as they walked into the observation deck,

"Oh? And what's that?" Jim asked as he sat down on the floor,

"On Rosine IV," Spock started. Jim froze but that didn't seem to deter Spock, "Those men that attacked you, one of them said you killed his sister,"

Jim shut his eyes and took a deep breath, "What's your question?"

"Why does he think that?"

Jim fiddled with the loose threads on his sleeve, "Because it's true," he murmured eventually. He waited for Spock to storm off and leave but nothing happened. He turned to look at Spock.

Spock had raised an eyebrow but that was it, "I find that hard to believe," Spock said,

"You do?"

"You are not a murderer,"

"Just a pirate," Jim joked half-heartedly,

"So, what happened?" Spock asked.

Jim sighed and drew his knees up to his chest. "Her name was Edith," he began, "Edith Keeler, she was…beautiful. Oh my god Spock, she was so beautiful, but she was also amazing and smart and talented, you'd have liked her." Jim ran a hand over his face before he took a shaky breath and continued, "She used to be part of my crew, a few years ago, but then… We were doing this job for some rich Betazoid and Edith had warned me there was something wrong with it. _I _knew there was something wrong with it, but I insisted we do the job anyway,"

"What happened?"

"Edith was right. Of course she was. The whole thing went south. We were meant to be collecting these rare gems from this mining colony, but once we were there it turned out there was this civil war going on that Star Fleet had been covering up, so we found ourselves totally unprepared in the middle of this warzone.

"Nearly everyone stayed on the ship, just me and Edith went down to the planet. We managed to make it down to the mines without much trouble, but then once we were there, there was a massive explosion. The rebels set off a bomb in the mine and it caused a cave in. Edith was trapped inside and I wasn't," Jim took a deep breath, he could feel his eyes start to fill with tears, "the rebels then released a message saying that they had other bombs planted in the mine and if their demands weren't met they'd kill everyone trapped inside. I pleaded with the Government to give in to their demands, but they wouldn't. I raced back to the Enterprise as quickly as I could, I tried to beam her out, but I couldn't. I wasn't quick enough. The bomb went off and…" silent tears slowly trickled down Jim's face.

Spock reached out and awkwardly patted Jim's shoulder, "Were the two of you…you know?"

Jim smiled weakly at Spock's awkwardness, "Yeah. God, I loved her, Spock and…and…"

"You didn't kill her," Spock said,

"Yes, I did,"

"No, you didn't,"

"I didn't save her," Jim sniffed,

"The rebels killed her," Spock said firmly,

"Her brother blames me,"

"Her brother actively tried to murder you," Spock pointed out.

Jim wiped his eyes on his sleeve, "Thanks Spock," he said, "I'm sorry for crying at you, I know Vulcan's can't deal with emotions,"

"I apologise for asking," Spock replied,

"After you saved me from Toby and his friends, I think you probably deserved and explanation,"

"Maybe now wasn't the time to ask though,"

"Maybe not," Jim conceded, "This was supposed to be our break."

Spock reached into his pocket and pulled out a tissue, "Here," he offered it to Jim,

"Thanks."

The two of them sat together in silence while Jim got himself together.

Eventually Jim stood up, somewhat shakily, "I think I gonna go and see if Bones'll give me my PADD back,"

Spock stood up too and looked Jim up and down, as if assessing if he was OK enough to be left alone now. After a second Spock nodded and said, "Let me know what you get in,"

"Will do," Jim said, with a still somewhat watery smile. He walked over to the door then turned to look over his shoulder, "See you later Spock," he said before going to find Bones.


	12. Chapter 12

Jim let out a giddy squeal and jumped to his feet, "I've done it!" he cried, holding his PADD up above his head in triumph, "…And nobodies here to see it," he frowned slightly as he lowered his arms. He looked around his room thoughtfully for a second before he declared, "I need to go find Spock."

Jim ran out of his room and hurried over to Spock's. He knocked on the door several times, "Spock!" he called out when there was no answer. Still nothing. Jim sighed, "Computer, locate Spock,"

"Mr Spock is in the shuttle bay," the computer replied,

"Still?"

Jim quickly made his way to the shuttle bay, he burst in to find Spock in pretty much the same position he'd found him in before several hours ago,

"I did it!" Jim called out. He'd hoped he'd be able to make Spock jump but no, the Vulcan just looked up,

"You have the frequencies?" he asked,

Jim nodded and passed the PADD over to Spock, "There you go,"

Spock looked over the data and rose an eyebrow, "That's very impressive," he said.

Jim beamed at him, "Thank you,"

Spock reached down and picked up a piece of paper from the floor next to him, "I've made a list for you," he said, passing the paper to Jim, "it's everything I need to finish the transmitter," he said.

Jim looked over it and nodded, "We'll find a planet we can stop at in the morning,"

"There's a small star base near here that should have everything," Spock said, "Colico VII,"

Jim frowned, "Colico VII, why do I know that name… Oh! Oh no, we can't stop there,"

"The next planet is four days away and I don't know that I will be able to finish the transmitter in time if we wait that long,"

"But me and Bones can't go down there, we'll be arrested,"

"We can either stop there or we can delay the rescue by a day or two," Spock said,

Jim shook his head, "No, we can't do that," he muttered, more to himself than Spock. He stared at the floor, deep in thought for a few seconds, before he eventually looked up and sighed, "There's nothing for it," he said, "You'll have to go down by yourself,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, we'll arrive first thing tomorrow morning." Jim ran his hand over his face, "I'd better go let Bones know and update the course."

-x-

The next morning Spock, Jim and Bones gathered in the transporter room. Spock was standing on the transporter pad and Jim was fiddling with the controls, while Bones stood in the doorway watching the two of them.

"Are you sure you're going to be OK?" Jim fussed,

"I have a fake ID that will allow me to pass through the check point without being arrested, unlike you two," Spock replied flatly, this was not the first, or even the fifth, time Jim had run through the plan

"And after that?"

"I will buy the equipment I need to finish the transmitter, then I will come back. It is a very straight forward plan,"

Bones smirked at Spock's sass, "He'll be fine," he said, "Now stop worrying and let's go,"

Jim turned to look at Spock who nodded. He let out a sigh and powered up the transporter, "Energise."

Spock glanced at Jim before he vanished from the Enterprise and reappeared on the star base,

"ID please,"

Spock turned around to see a cheerful woman standing next to a computer with her hand out. Spock reached into his pocket and pulled out his Earth ID. He flipped it over in his hand and stared at it for a second before giving it to the woman. She scanned it then handed it back, "Enjoy," she said before stepping aside and allowing Spock to enter the base.

-x-

Spock quickly worked his way through the small selection of shops on the base, searching for the parts he needed.

Just as he was leaving the last shop, Spock noticed a man in green watching him over the magazine he was reading. He raised an eyebrow at the guy, but the man quickly looked away when he noticed Spock watching him.

Spock continued to stare at the guy for a few seconds before he decided to ignore him and walk back down to the transporter points.

The moment Spock's back was turned to man lowered his magazine and started to follow him.

When Spock reached the beam up point, he drew the communicator Jim had given him out of his pocket and flipped it open, "Spock to Enterprise," he said,

"Kirk here,"

"I'm done, I'm ready-" Spock let out a gasp as he felt something sharp hit him in the back of the neck,

"Spock?"

Spock reached up to find a dart in his neck. He wrapped his fingers around it and weakly pulled it out, "What…?"

"Spock?" Came Jim's voice from the communicator again, sounding increasingly worried.

Spock felt his knees go weak and his legs wobble as he started to fall backwards. However, before he hit the floor, he felt somebody wrap their arms around him and catch him just in time,

"Do you know how much you're worth?" a voice said into his ear,

"Jim!" Spock called out, "Beam…" Spock felt his eyes droop closed as he was encased in gold light.

-x-

Spock awoke to the sound of Bones and Jim whispering to each other,

"…He'll be fine, it's just a mild sedative,"

"But how did this happen?" Jim cried, "it was meant to be safe for him to go down there,"

Spock turned to his head to see that he was lying in the sick bay of the Enterprise, with Jim and Bones standing just a few metres away from his bed.

"I got through the check point just fine," Spock said hoarsely,

"You're awake!" Jim cried, rushing over to his side, while Bones scanned him with his tricorder,

"What happened‽"

"There was a bounty hunter," Spock said slowly, as he pieced everything together, "he must have been scanning people though various databases. He knew how much I was worth,"

Jim frowned before turning to Bones, "He's fine?"

"Yes,"

"Can he leave then?"

"Fine," Bones huffed, "go on then,"

Jim grinned and pulled Spock up, "Great, Bones, keep an eye on things, me and Spock are going to lunch,"

Jim took hold of Spock's arm and pulled out of the sick bay. "How are you really?" he asked, once they were out of earshot,

"I am functioning optimally," Spock said as the two of them walked into the mess hall,

"You sure?"

Spock glanced down, "I still feel somewhat tried," he admitted as he collected his lunch.

Jim smiled, "I'm sure that will wear off soon enough."

The two of them sat down at a table and Jim eyed the dumplings on Spock's plate, "You know the replicators will make Vulcan food, right?" he asked,

"I know," Spock said, "But I have lived on Earth for over a decade and I have become quite accustomed to its food,"

Jim smiled as he tucked into his own lunch. It was weird to think that not that long ago he'd been trying to arrest the Vulcan yet now he was one of his best friends.


	13. Chapter 13

Jim was sat alone on the bridge in his Captain's chair. He was clutching a half-empty bottle of Saurian brandy, gazing out at the view screen.

This was it; that morning Spock had finished work on the shuttle and tomorrow they'd arrive at Kai'Xendith. Then…Then he'd have to say goodbye to Spock. That had been the deal hadn't it?

Jim sighed and took another swig of brandy. It burnt his throat, but he didn't care. He was so wrapped up in self-pity that he didn't hear the turbolift open and somebody walk out,

"Kirk,"

Jim turned his head to see Spock standing behind him, "Jim," he said, causing Spock to raise an eyebrow at him, "You should really call me Jim, now that we're friends,"

"Jim," Spock repeated, before walking over to him, "Are you alright?"

Jim sighed, "I'm just nervous about tomorrow,"

"We have a well thought out plan," Spock said,

"There are a lot of things that could go wrong, and we can't control,"

Spock nodded and sat down on the floor next to Jim's chair, "There is a fifty-three point one percent chance we will succeed in this rescue,"

"They're terrible odds!" Jim scoffed,

"They're very good considering all the variables," Spock pointed out.

"Hmmm," Jim got up and walked over to a replicator, "Want a drink?"

"Alcohol has no effect on Vulcans,"

"Really? Huh,"

"Chocolate has a similar sort of effect though," Spock said after a second causing Jim to grin at him,

"Perfect," he pressed a button on the replicator and a tall bottle appeared. Jim picked it up and brought it back over to Spock, "Chocolate liquor," he said, "this should get us both drunk," Jim flopped down on to the floor next to Spock and opened the bottle. He took a large swig then started to cough violently, "Dear God, there's a reason people don't normally drink that," he grimaced, holding the bottle out to Spock.

Silently Spock took the bottle and took a sip.

The two of them sat side by side in comfortable silence, gazing out at the view screen,

"It's a beautiful view isn't it?" Jim said after a while, "I don't think I'll ever get bored of the stars,"

"They remind me of my childhood," Spock said,

Jim turned to look at Spock in shock, "Really‽"

"My father was the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, so I spent quite a bit of time travelling between the two planets,"

Jim gazed at Spock in awe, "I would have given anything to get off planet when I was a kid," he said, "did you ever get to visit any other planets?"

"A few. My father didn't like leaving me alone on Vulcan, I think he was afraid somebody would find out about me while he was away. Most of his trips were to Earth though. Before she died, we used to go to Earth to visit my mother,"

"Your mother lived on Earth?"

"She was human,"

Jim's eyes swept over Spock in shock, "You're half human?"

"Indeed,"

Jim smiled, "What was she like, your mother?"

"My father always said she was kind and smart and strong, but I don't really remember anything about her, just the odd image," Spock said distantly,

Jim frowned slightly, "How old were you when she died?"

"Two,"

"Oh Spock…" Jim reached out and touched Spock's arm however he didn't react, he just kept staring out in front of him,

"Somebody figured out I was her son or something, and then one day, when she was looking after me while my father was working, the authorities showed up and shot her,"

"Christ," Jim took another large gulp of chocolate liquor before passing it to Spock, "Here,"

Spock stared at it for a moment before he too drank heavily from the bottle,

"I don't remember my dad," Jim said, as he took the bottle back off Spock, "he died in the USS Kelvin incident,"

Spock stared at Jim for a second, "Your father is George Kirk," he said in astonishment,

"You know who George Kirk is?"

"Affirmative," Spock said, "The Kelvin incident is quite famous. It is widely considered the last truly successful thing Star Fleet did,"

Jim snorted, "It wasn't that successful, the idiot still died," Jim ran his hand over his face, "After that Mom wanted little to do with me, I reminded her too much of him so she used to leave me with her dickhead brother, Frank, and go off to space for longer and longer at a time," Jim shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. He took another large swig of liquor, "Look at me complaining about my childhood when you grew up on Quora VII,"

Spock gently prised the bottle out of Jim's hand, "my hardships do not lessen yours," he said,

"They do put them into perspective though. My mother is still alive, you've been an orphan since you were what, seven was it?"

"Affirmative," Spock confirmed,

"So…What happened to your father?" Jim asked reluctantly, "You don't have to tell me," he hastily added when Spock didn't say anything,

"It was rather like what happened with my mother, I suppose," Spock started, "Somebody at school started to grow suspicious so they stole some of my DNA. That gave them everything they needed-"

"How did they get your DNA‽" Jim asked,

"I don't know exactly but it wouldn't have been hard, grab a stray hair while passing me or something,"

"So, what happened next?"

"My teacher went to the authorities and they turned up at our home,"

"But they didn't manage to capture you?"

"No, my father was prepared for such a situation, I think he had been since I was born. He had bags packed and an escape route planned. We got as far as the shipyard before the authorities caught up with us,"

Jim frowned as Spock took another large swig of chocolate liquor,

"They grabbed my father, but I managed to escape. I stowed away on a ship and ended up on Earth where their authorities picked me up and sent me to Quora VII,"

"Why didn't they arrest you on Earth?"

"There was a fake ID in the bag my father gave me, the one you ran when you first captured me, that lists me as a pure-blooded Vulcan, and they accepted that without any questions. I told you he was prepared,"

Jim frowned again, "But we managed to figure out it was fake almost straight away,"

"You ran it against the Vulcan database, they didn't,"

Jim glanced over at Spock to see that he was still gazing out at the stars. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and touched Spock's arm again, "I'm sorry," he said, causing Spock to whip round and look at him,

"It's not your fault," he said,

"No, I mean I'm sorry for capturing your ship, for trying to sell you to Vulcan. I'm sorry for not letting you go when you helped us escape from prison and I'm sorry I destroyed your ship,"

"I forgive you," Spock said.

Jim stared at him with wide eyes, "You shouldn't," he said. He could feel his eyes start to fill with tears, the alcohol was really starting to get to him,

"You proved my initial assessment of you wrong," Spock said, "When we first met, I thought you were cocky and arrogant to the point of stupidity,"

"Thanks,"

"But now I see that you are brave and smart and extremely loyal," Jim smiled somewhat sadly, "I'm gonna miss you Spock," he said,

"These last few weeks have been surprisingly pleasant," Spock conceded.

Jim leaned over to rest his head on Spock's shoulder. To his surprise Spock didn't try to remove him.

After a while, Jim reached over and grabbed the, now nearly empty, bottle of liquor. He sat up to take a drink and looked over at Spock. His hair was sticking up at the side where Jim had been leaning on him. Jim reached out to try and fix Spock's hair back into position, but Spock dodged out of the way and raised an eyebrow at Jim,

"It's sticking up," Jim said by way of an explanation.

Spock reached up and repositioned the stray curls.

Jim smiled to himself as he resisted the urge to reach out and play with Spock's hair, "I've never seen another Vulcan with curly hair," he said,

"Vulcan's don't have curly hair," Spock replied, "When I lived on Vulcan my father used to straighten it every day before school,"

"What about on Quora VII?"

"Nobody cared on Quora VII. Then when I moved to Earth it became wise to hide my ears."

Jim reached out and brushed Spock's hair aside to reveal a pointed ear, "It's such a shame to hide them though," he said, "they're pretty," he moved his hand so that the curls fell back into place, however he didn't move away from Spock, "then again, I do love your curly hair too,"

"I am told I get it from my mother," Spock said.

The two of them stared at each other. There were only a few centimetres between them now.

Spock closed the gap between them and gently pecked Jim on the lips. He pulled away as quickly as he'd lent in, a green blush already forming on his cheeks.

Spock moved to get up, but Jim grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled him towards him again, crashing their lips together. This kiss was much more passionate and longer and the two of them were slightly breathless as they pulled apart.

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, breathing heavily.

Jim kissed Spock again before pulling him to his feet, "My quarters have a bigger bed," he said, by way of an invitation.

Spock nodded and took hold of Jim's hand, then the two of them hurried off the bridge.


	14. Chapter 14

Jim stretched his arms out above his head, as he slowly woke up the next morning. He smiled to himself as he opened his eyes and rolled over. However, his face fell when he saw that his bed was empty. He sat up and looked out at his room. His clothes were still strewn across the floor but there was no sign of Spock.

Jim ran his hand over his face and groaned. He climbed out of bed and pulled on some clothes. He clumsily left his room and went in search of some coffee…or Spock…or both.

Jim walked on to the bridge clutching a mug of coffee to find himself face to face with Spock and Bones,

"Kirk-" Spock started,

"Jim,"

Spock rose an eyebrow but otherwise ignored Jim's correction, "We have arrived at Kai'Xendith, we'll be ready to depart in five minutes,"

"Perfect," Jim grinned, "to the shuttle bay then,"

Bones glanced down at Jim's cup, "Is that what you're having for breakfast?" he asked as he followed Jim into the turbolift,

"It'll be fine," Jim said, "I don't want to fight on a full stomach,"

The door opened and the three of them stepped out into the shuttle bay. Spock pulled out a phaser, passed it to Jim and headed over to the shuttle.

"What's wrong with him?" Bones asked,

"You're guess is as good as mine," Jim replied, not taking his eyes off Spock. Jim shook his head then turned back to Bones, "You know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, yeah, wait for the signal to beam you back and stop anyone else from leaving the prison,"

"And stop them from calling for help," Spock called back at them, "Kirk, it's time to leave,"

Jim smiled weakly at Bones then walked over to Spock.

"Good luck," Bones called after him.

Jim joined Spock in the shuttle and climbed into the seat next to him. He did up his seat belt then nodded at Spock.

Spock flipped a switch then said, "Ready to launch," into the communicator to Bones,

"Opening bay doors," came Bones's reply.

The shuttle shook as the engines came to life. They slowly flew towards the doors, then there was a loud clang and then they were out in space.

-x-

Jim kept glancing at Spock, who seemed to be engrossed in the control board in front of him. He wanted to talk to the Vulcan about the night before but every time he went to mention it, he chickened out.

Jim took a deep breath, "Spock-" he started,

"We are being hailed," Spock cut in, flipping a nearby switch,

"Please identify,"

Spock glanced down at the PADD next to him, on it was the code Jim had found when he'd hacked them, "Q437PJ14LN9," he read out.

Jim held his breath as they waited for the reply,

"Confirmed, please approach shuttle bay five," came the eventual reply,

"Affirmative," Spock flicked a few more switched then pulled a lever.

The ship moved towards the prison and they prepared to dock. The two of them then quickly climbed out of their seats and moved to attack position,

"You ready?" Jim asked, pausing by the shuttle door,

"Affirmative," Spock replied as he pulled a phaser out of his belt.

Jim nodded and pushed a button next to the door. It slid open and both Jim and Spock jumped out. They instantly fired at the three guards in the shuttle bay, taking them by surprise. Spock hit the two by the entrance with quick precision, knocking the two of them out instantly.

Jim took out the one by the control panel just as he was reaching to call for help, "Did you see that shot‽" He exclaimed,

Spock glanced at him, but he didn't respond as he walked over to the door and pressed a button to close it while Jim walked over to a computer terminal.

Jim brought up the prison database and started to scan the list of names for his crew. He felt Spock walk over and look over his shoulder.

Jim jotted down the relevant cells then turned to Spock, "Let's go,"

"I'm not coming,"

Jim frowned, "What do you mean you're not coming? I need you!"

Spock shook his head, "I am more useful here, I can remove the barrier that's stopping us from beaming out and I can unlock the relevant cell doors from here,"

Jim bit his lip, he didn't want to leave Spock behind, but the Vulcan made a good point, "OK, he relented, "But keep me updated on everything that goes on in here,"

Spock inclined his head, "You too,"

Jim smiled, "See you in a bit," he said as he headed out of the door.

-x-

Jim ran down the corridor with his phaser drawn. His crew was all imprisoned in the east section of the prison.

Jim pushed open a door just as an alarm went off. He groaned and sped up his run, it was only a matter of time before the guards were upon him.

He turned a corner and started down some stairs just as his communicator chirper, "Kirk here,"

"Our presence here has been noticed," came Spock's voice,

"Thanks, I hadn't realised,"

"The prison has gone into lockdown," Spock said, as if Jim hadn't spoken, "However I am in their system so I can open any door you need, just let me know when you get there,"

"I'm at one now," Jim said, coming to a halt at the bottom of the stairs,

"On the count of three, one…two…three,"

The door in front of Jim sprung open and he dived through. He instantly found himself face to face with a shocked guard. They both started at each other for a second before the guard made to reach for his phaser, however before he could draw it Jim fired his, knocking the guard unconscious.

Jim reached down and collected the weapons off the unconscious guard before taking in his surroundings. He was now in a long corridor, that seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see, lined with doors leading to different cells.

Jim took a deep breath then walked down to what he believed was Uhura's cell, "Spock," he called into his communicator, "open cell E034,"

"Affirmative,"

After a second the door sprung open and Jim hurried inside.

Uhura was lying on a small cot at the far side of her cell, "Captain!" she gasped in shock, "What are you doing here?" She jumped up and flung herself into Jim's arms,

"Rescuing you," he smiled, enjoying the hug for just a second, before he pulled Uhura out of the cell.

Jim then rattled off a list of cell numbers into his communicator and three more doors sprung open,

"Scotty!" He called out, "Sulu! Chekov!"

"Jim‽" Sulu shouted, running out of his cell, closely followed by the other two.

Jim grinned at them and passed them all a phaser. Now everyone was out of their cells Jim could see them properly for the first time. They had all got noticeably thinner in the few weeks since Jim had last seen them, and Chekov had a large black eye.

Jim's communicator beeped, bringing him out of his thoughts,

"I have removed the barrier in the shuttle bay, so you just need to make it back here,"

"Thanks Spock," Jim flipped his communicator closed and looked up to see his crew staring at him,

"What?"

"Spock?" Uhura asked,

"As in that Vulcan?" Chekov asked,

"Why are you working with him Laddie?" Scotty questioned,

"He's helping," Jim said defensively, "He's…alright,"

"But Captain!" Chekov cried,

"What makes you think we can trust him?" Sulu asked.

Before Jim could reply the door sprung open and several guards hurried in. Instinctively all of the crew raised their phasers and fired at the guards, knocking them out, before any of them could even assess the situation.

"Come on, follow me!" Jim cried, running out of the room.

He led everyone through the maze of corridors back to the shuttle bay. He ran in to see Spock leaning over a computer terminal.

Spock looked up as everyone ran in. "Duck," he said.

Jim ducked as Spock raised his phaser and fired. Jim spun around to see a guard unconscious on the floor behind him. "Thanks," he said in shock.

"You should get going before more guards show up," Spock said, stepping out from behind the computer and opening his communicator,

"Spock to Enterprise,"

"McCoy here,"

"Beam up everyone aside from me,"

"What‽ Bones, belay that order!" Jim shouted before turning to Spock, "Why aren't you coming?"

"I can't," Spock said, before going back to his communicator, "Beam them up now!"

"No! Belay that order!"

Spock shut his eyes, "Beam up everyone aside from myself and Jim."

Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov dematerialised leaving just Spock and Jim alone in the shuttle bay.

"Spock-"

"Not now," Spock said, turning back to the door. Several more guars hurried in and Spock fired his phaser, but nothing happened. He groaned in frustration and threw his phaser to the side. He then leaped forward, punching one of the guards and kicking another.

Jim stared at Spock for a second. He thought he would never get tired of watching Spock fighting.

"Jim!" Spock snapped. Jim shook his head and pulled out his phaser.

Before too long Spock and Jim had taken out all the guards between them.

"You need to go," Spock said,

"No! Spock, why can't you come with me?"

"I just can't," Spock said evasively, "Jim, I need you to leave,"

"Not without you!" Jim cried.

Spock started at Jim for a second before reaching out and grabbing hold of Jim's collar. He pulled Jim forward, smashing their lips together. Jim instantly melted into the kiss, however, it ended as suddenly as it had begun.

Spock broke the kiss as he pulled out his communicator, "Beam Jim up now," he ordered.

Before Jim's brain had a chance to catch up with what was going on and stop the order, he was enveloped in a gold light and he disappeared.


	15. Chapter 15

"No!" Jim shouted as he reappeared on the Enterprise. He turned to see Bones and Scotty standing behind the transporter controls with Sulu, Chekov and Uhura standing by the door.

"Take me back now!" he shouted,

"Jim-"

"Now!"

"Why Captain?" Uhura asked,

"He was our prisoner," Chekov pointed out, "Why does it matter if we leave him behind?"

"He didn't want to come with us," Scotty said, "He wanted us to leave him behind,"

"Chekov and I will prepare the ship to leave orbit," Sulu said, pulling Chekov out of the room.

Jim turned back to Bones with wide eyes, "You have to send me back," he whispered brokenly, "I can't leave him,"

"Jim…"

"Please Bones, please, I need him,"

Bones closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I'm going to regret this," he muttered to himself. He then flicked a few switches on the panel and turned back to Jim, "OK, you have one hour, then we're leaving without you, we can't keep the prison isolated for much longer,"

Jim beamed at him, "Thank you!"

Bones nodded and pressed a button, "Energise."

-x-

Jim rematerialized in the prison shuttle bay. He turned to where he'd last seen Spock, but the Vulcan was no longer in the room.

Jim sighed and clipped his phaser to his belt. He walked over to the computer terminal Spock had been working at, hoping that it would show where Spock had gone. He touched the screen, causing it to light up. His eyes widened slightly in shock at what he saw. For some reason, the last thing Spock had done was open all the doors to a section in the basement. What on Earth could Spock want down there?

Jim turned the computer off so that nobody could use it to follow them, then hurried off down to the basement to find Spock.

He ran down several fights of stair and down multiple corridors. It was easy to see where Spock had gone, he'd only unlocked the doors he needed, and if that wasn't enough every now and then Jim stumbled across a group of guards Spock had knocked out.

Jim hurried round another corner only to find himself face to face with the end of a gun,

"Jim‽"

"Spock?"

Spock lowed the frankly massive gun he was holding and looked Jim up and down, "What are you doing here?"

Jim ignored him, instead staring at Spock's gun, "Where did you get that?" he asked,

"I took it of one of the guards," Spock explained, glancing at the gun, "Jim, you shouldn't be here,"

"I couldn't leave you Spock, it's dangerous down here!"

"Exactly! You should be on the Enterprise, travelling away from here at warp eight,"

"You should know by now that I don't leave one of my own behind,"

Spock narrowed his eyes, "I thought Dr McCoy had better sense than to beam you back down here,"

"I can be very persuasive," Spock rose an eyebrow and Jim sighed, "OK, he gave us a hour, then he's leaving without us," Jim glanced down at his watch, "Well, more like forty minutes now,"

Spock stared at Jim for a second before closing his eyes, "Come on," he said eventually, "We need to hurry up before more guards turn up."

Spock lead Jim down the corridor and into a small cell block,

"You didn't open all the cells," Jim observed,

"Indeed, I couldn't risk everyone getting out, there are some truly dangerous criminals down here," Spock explained as he knelt down in front of a control panel. He then pressed two wires together and the door next to them sprung open.

Spock stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder, then, without even a glance back at Jim he marched into the room.

Jim followed Spock inside. There, curled up on a thread-bare cot at the far end of the cell, was a grey-haired Vulcan who turned to see what the commotion was when Spock and Jim barged into his cell.

Spock stared at the Vulcan with wide eyes, seemingly frozen to the spot,

"Spock," Jim prompted quietly, "What's going on?"

"Father," Spock said, giving no indication that he'd heard Jim at all.

The Vulcan slowly sat up and squinted at Spock, "Spock?"

Spock nodded. That seemed to be all it took to unstick him from his spot in the doorway. Spock hurried over to the Vulcan – Spock's father – and gently took hold of his arm, "We need to get moving," he said, "We have a ship in orbit that we can beam up to if we get to the shuttle bay," Spock glanced back at Jim, acknowledging him for the first time since they're entered the room.

Jim nodded, "Yeah, we've got just over twenty minutes before they leave,"

Spock nodded and helped his father to his feet,

"Sarek," Spock's father said to Jim, with a nod of his head,

"Jim," Jim replied with a smile before turning to Spock "Give me the gun," he said, holding out his hand, "You can't support him and use it," he explained when he saw Spock's puzzled look.

Spock nodded and slung the gun off his shoulder, he passed it to Jim, then wrapped his arm around his father, who seemed to be struggling to walk on his own.

Jim lead the two of them out of the cell and up the stairs. He kept the gun out in front of him, ready to stun anyone they ran into. They turned the corner to the shuttle bay to find two guards standing by the entrance. Jim shot the first one before either of them had a chance to react, but the second one spun around and pointed his gun at Spock,

"Spock!" Jim shouted, however before he could do anything Spock's father pushed his son as hard as he could.

Spock tumbled over just as the guard fired his gun, hitting Sarek instead of Spock.

"Father!" Spock shouted,

Jim fired at the last guard then hurried over to Spock who was now kneeling next to his father.

"He's just been stunned," Spock said quietly,

"Good," Jim said, taking hold of Spock's arm, "That's good, but we need to keep going, do you think you can carry him?"

Spock nodded and scooped Sarek up into his arms. The two of them hurried back into the shuttle bay and Jim pulled out his communicator, "Bones!" he called out,

"Jim! You found Spock?"

"Yes, three to beam up?"

"Three‽"

"Now!"

Jim, Spock and Sarek dissolved into a gold light leaving Kai'Xendith behind.

-x-

The three of them appeared on the transporter pad of the Enterprise and everyone sprang into action.

"Good God man," Bones cried upon seeing them,

"He needs medical attention," Spock said as he lowered Sarek to the ground.

Bones hurried over to him and ran his tricorder over Sarek. His eyes went wide at what he saw, "You two get off the pad," he ordered Jim and Spock,

"What why‽" Jim cried,

"We need to get him to the sick bay now and I'm going to transport him there,"

Just then the ship shook, and several alarms started to go off,

"What's happening?" Jim cried,

"Kai'Xendith is firing at us," Spock replied,

Jim ran over to the communicator panel and slammed the button down, "Kirk to the bridge,"

"Captain?" came Sulu's reply,

"Get us out of here now!"


	16. Chapter 16

That night Spock found himself sitting alone on the floor of the bridge of the Enterprise.

Once the ship was out of danger Bones had ordered everyone to the sick bay so he could check them over. He'd reluctantly released Jim and Spock however he'd insisted that the rest of the crew stay overnight. It would seem that even a few weeks in Kai'Xendith could cause serious damage. Spock could only imagine what decades there could do to a person.

Spock was drawn out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of the turbolift opening behind him, "Jim," he greeted.

Jim smiled at him as he sat down in the Captain's chair, "Anything happening?"

"Negative," Spock said, "Nothing has been updated since you told Sulu to get us out of here, at the moment we are simply heading away from Kai'Xendith,"

Jim nodded slowly and walked over to the navigation panel, "Where do you want to go?" he asked,

"I beg your pardon?"

"Our deal, you help me, and I'll take you wherever you want to go, so, where do you want to go?"

Spock didn't reply he just stared at his hands in his lap.

Jim sighed and walked over to Spock. He gently placed a hand on his shoulder before sitting down next to him, "Spock…what happened? One Kai'Xendith that is?"

Spock turned to look at Jim. If he were human he would have sighed, "I saw his name on the list of prisoners when you were searching for your crew," Spock explained, "Before today I genuinely thought he was dead,"

Jim gently pulled Spock down to lean on his shoulder. When he didn't resist Jim reached up and started to stroke Spock's hair.

The two of them sat together in silence for a while before Spock eventually sat up.

Jim sighed slightly and gave Spock a weak smile. "Bones gave me an update about Sarek," he said, "that's why I came to find you actually,"

Spock sat up straight and gave Jim a serious look, "What did the Doctor say?" he asked,

"Erm, he said that your father has got some nerve damage, a couple of broken bones and some nutritional things…there was a lot more technical crap that I don't remember but that was the gist of it,"

Spock quirked his eyebrow at Jim, causing him to smile slightly, "I'm sure Bones will fill you in, anyway, what I wanted to tell you was that he's awake,"

At that Spock looked back down at his lap again, "Spock?"

"We haven't seen each other in nearly twenty years,"

"Oh Spock…."

"What do I even say to him?"

Jim frowned, as he tried to come up with a good answer before he let out a sigh of defeat, "I don't know what to tell you Spock. I don't have any good advice for you, this entire situation is kind of insane! But I know you need to go see him Spock, trust me, it won't matter what you say,"

"I know," Spock nodded as he stood up, "You're right, I will go see him now."

It was only as Spock left the bridge that Jim realised that Spock had never given him a destination.

-x-

The sick bay was dark as Spock walked in. There were several beds containing Jim's sleeping crew, but Spock couldn't see Sarek anywhere.

"Spock?"

Spock turned around to see Bones coming out of his office, "Doctor," he greeted with a nod of his head, "Where is my father?"

"He's just through here," Bones said, leading Spock across to a private room, "I thought it was best to keep him separate from the rest of the crew,"

"Thank you, Doctor," Spock said,

"Don't take too long," Bones said, "He needs to rest,"

"Affirmative," Spock said before he pushed the door open and walked inside to see Sarek sitting up in bed reading,

"Spock," Sarek said as he laid eyes on his son,

"Father,"

"Thank you for rescuing me,"

"You're welcome," Spock replied as he awkwardly sat down in the chair next to Sarek's bed.

Sarek stared at Spock for a moment, slowly taking him in, "I have spent the last nineteen years thinking about you, wandering if you were alright, if you were even still alive. Even in my most illogical moments I never thought I would get answers to those questions,"

"I thought you were dead," Spock said quietly, "When they caught us at the dock yards, I thought they'd killed you…like they killed Mother,"

Sarek reached out as if to touch Spock however he paused just before he made contact, leaving his hand hovering in the air, "You look like your mother," he said as he lowered his hand, "She would be very proud of the person you have grown up to be. I know I am,"

Spock stared at his father, he had never known him to speak quite so emotionally, "You don't know me," he replied eventually,

"I would like to though," Sarek said.

Spock suddenly felt very overwhelmed and he had to look away from his father.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Sarek took it upon himself to change the subject, "Is this your ship?" he asked,

"Negative, this is Jim's ship, I'm just…" Spock trailed off as he realised, he didn't know how to finish that sentence any more,

"Are you part of his crew?"

"No, we're…friends," Spock answered uncomfortably before taking a deep breath and turning to look directly at Sarek, "Have you thought about what you're going to do once Doctor McCoy has cleared you? I have a friend on Orion who has offered me a safe place to stay, I'm sure you'd also be welcome there,"

Sarek shook his head, "I intend to go and find the resistance against the Vulcan-Earth war,"

Spock nodded and looked down at his lap. It would seem that prison hadn't changed his father that much, "I will inform Jim, I'm sure he will be more than happy to take you there,"

"You're going to Orion then?" Sarek asked, causing Spock to look up,

"I don't know,"

Before Sarek could reply Bones walked into the room, "Visit's over," he said, "You need to rest,"

Spock nodded and stood up, "I will see you tomorrow," he said before quietly making his way out of the sick bay.


	17. Chapter 17

Jim was lying on his bed trying to read a report from Bones on the condition of his crew, when he heard the sound of somebody coming down the corridor outside his room. He smiled to himself and sat up, there was only one person that could be.

He jumped off his bed and poked his head around his door. He was pleased to see Spock unlocking the room next to his, "Spock," he called out,

"Jim," Spock replied, as he turned to look at his friend, "You have not gone to sleep yet," he observed,

Jim shrugged as Spock opened his door, "I had stuff to do," he replied vaguely before he followed Spock into his room, "How is your father?"

"He seems to be recovering well, he expressed interest in helping stop the war if you are amendable,"

Jim nodded as he wandered over to Spock's bed and sat down, "I'll drop him off wherever he wants to go," he said as he glanced at Spock nervously, "Are you going to go with him?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do,"

"You could stay here with me,"

Spock's expression softened and he walked over so that he was standing directly in front of Jim, "And what would I do on your ship?"

Jim smirked at Spock, "I can think of many things,"

"Such as?"

Jim smiled as he stood up, "Well, this for starters," he said before closing the gap between them and kissing Spock. Jim snaked his hand into Spock's hair and Spock gently rested his hands on Jim's waist.

"What else?" Spock asked slightly breathlessly, when the two of them eventually parted,

Jim grinned up at Spock and took hold of his hand, "Want me to show you?"

"Affirmative."

-x-

Jim woke up the next morning to find himself half on top of Spock with their legs entwined under the covers. He slowly sat up and glanced down at the sleeping Vulcan next to him. He couldn't help but smile to himself. Spock's hair was fanned out around his head on the pillow, revealing his pointed ears. Jim gently reached out and ran his finger along the shell of Spock's ear.

Spock's eyes fluttered open and Jim grinned down at him, "Morning Gorgeous," he said,

"Good morning," Spock replied as he sat up.

Jim pecked Spock on the cheek, then climbed out of bed, "I would suggest we spend a lazy morning in bed together but Bones will undoubtedly come looking for us, and besides, we need to sort out dropping off your father,"

"Indeed," Spock agreed as he too climbed out of bed.

Jim picked up his clothes from the floor as Spock got dressed, "You know, I wasn't joking last night," he said, "You can stay on the Enterprise, if that's what you want,"

Spock turned to look at Jim as he straightened his jumper, "There's no place for me in your crew," he said, "I'll see you in the mess hall," with that Spock left the room leaving behind a very confused and hurt Jim.

-x-

It did not take long for Sarek to locate the resistance base. Apparently he had many contacts from before his imprisonment in Kai'Xendith, people who'd been willing to help him and Spock, most of whom were now trying to stop the war and more than happy to have somebody join their cause.

It took the Enterprise just over two days to reach Sarek's base. It was a small unsuspecting planet, but Jim guessed that was the best place for a resistance base.

It took a further six days for Bones to release Sarek from the sick bay and clear him. During that time Jim and Spock barely spoke. Whenever Jim tried to talk to Spock, the Vulcan seemed to mysteriously vanish. There was no mistaking the fact that he was avoiding him.

-x-

Jim sat by his bedroom door listening for the sound of Spock leaving his room. He was determined to talk to Spock today, even if that meant cornering him in the turbolift. Sarek was leaving that morning and Jim had a feeling that if he didn't get to speak to Spock now, he'd miss his chance.

He heard Spock leave his room and walk down the corridor. Jim then flung open his door and ran after him, "Hey Spock, wait up," he called. Spock ignored him and continued walking down the hall, however he wasn't quick enough and Jim managed to jump into the turbolift with him, "Look I wanted to talk to you about what you said last week, about there being no place for you in my crew," Jim said,

"There is nothing more to say," Spock replied,

"No, yeah there is. What did you mean by that?"

"You asked for my help because I could fix your ship, but you have your crew back now. You have an actual engineer now. I don't need me,"

Jim smiled slightly at Spock, "Yes, I asked you to fix my ship, but I also asked you to help me save my crew,"

"So, I could be your personal fighter?" Spock asked in such a manner that indicated this would not be acceptable,

"My point is, you have many talents, Spock, you could do whatever you want," Jim clicked his fingers, "You could be my science officer! You've spent all your spare time at the science station, I don't think anyone used it before you,"

Before Spock could reply the turbolift opened to reveal the transporter room where the entire crew and Sarek were already gathered.

"You missed breakfast," Bones admonished Jim,

"I was busy," Jim replied as he walked over to the control panel, "You ready Sarek?"

"Indeed Captain," Sarek stepped onto the transporter pad before turning to Spock, "you could come with me," he said, "You are a child of both worlds, you could unit Vulcan and Earth,"

"Yes, they could unit over their agreement that I am an abomination," Spock replied, however there was no malice in his voice, "I cannot go with you," he said as he walked over to stand by Jim's side, "My place is here,"

Spock took hold of Jim's hand and Jim beamed at him in surprise.

Sarek nodded, "You know where to find me if you change your mind,"

Spock nodded then turned to Jim, "Energise."


End file.
